Written question asked by Keith Simpson (Conservative) on Thursday, 15 October 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 October 2009. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Thursday, 22 October 2009 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Burma

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness against objectives of EU sanctions on Burma.

Answer: Following the sentence imposed on Aung San Suu Kyi on 11 August 2009, the EU put in place further sanctions intended to specifically target the Burmese regime's economic interests, as well as imposing a travel ban on those members of the judiciary responsible for the verdict. These measures came into force on 14 August 2009. The fact that new EU trade and investment is negligible is an indication of the success of this policy.Moreover, these sanctions leave the regime in no doubt about our determination to see real democracy established and human rights respected in Burma. Their objective is to target those individuals and entities that are most closely linked to the regime's misrule, rather than punishing the Burmese population as a whole.

Secondary information