WASHINGTON (Reuters-IHT): President George W. Bush said Thursday that he had ordered a new round of sanctions on state companies in Myanmar to pressure the military leadership there over human rights abuses and to push for political change.
"Today I've issued a new executive order that instructs the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Burmese state-owned companies that are major sources of funds that prop up the junta."
The sanctions were targeted at companies and industries that produce timber, pearls and gems. They mark the latest effort by Bush to ratchet up pressure on Myanmar after its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters last September.
"Today I'm sending yet another clear message that we expect there to be change and we expect generals to honor the will of the people," Bush said.
The Treasury Department has already imposed sanctions on Myanmar's private companies and military leaders.
Myanmar last held elections in 1990, but ignored the results when the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years under some form of detention.
The current junta has scheduled a referendum on May 10 as a critical stage in a seven-step "road-map to democracy" that should culminate in multi-party elections in 2010, as a replacement to the absolute power wielded by the army since a 1962 coup.
Human Rights Watch has said that at least 20 people were killed in the crackdown on protesters last September, but Western governments say the toll may have been much higher.
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