Burma Sanctions

Floor Speech

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I address the Congress today with deep concern over the Administration's lifting of sanctions against the dictatorship of Burma.
We are working to get support, assistance and even proposing the transfer of weapons to the opposition in Syria, but yet, in Burma--a place where there are at least 500,000 displaced people in one area and some report over 70,000 new displaced people due to attacks against the Kachin perpetrated by the actions of dictators--this Administration is rewarding the regime and their brutality.
Why do our policies give value to the lives of the opposition in Syria while denying the value of the lives of ethnic minorities and democratic activists in Burma?

The Administration's actions expose a shameful approach--one that allows U.S. businesses to invest in a land still drenched in bloodshed and where some prosper through the oppression of others. We should not be lifting any sanctions against dictators in Burma until they prove over time that they will stick to their word and they actually end their attacks against the people of Burma.

It is absurd to be lifting sanctions while a well-known brutal dictatorship continues to attack, displace, and even kill the people within its country.

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