EU renews sanctions against Myanmar

LUXEMBOURG - The European Union (EU) decided Monday on a 12-month extension to sanctions against Myanmar, condemning moves by its military junta to prevent the opposition from taking part in planned elections.

The sanctions renewed Monday include an asset freeze and a travel ban on members of the Myanmar’s regime, as well as an arms embargo.

In a statement issued in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers expressed “serious concern” for new electoral codes introduced last month, ahead of the poll later this year, saying they “do not provide for free and fair elections”.

The codes prohibit contesting parties from including people currently serving prison terms from party membership, effectively excluding Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the contest.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has spent 14 of the past 21 years under house arrest in her family compound in Yangon.

Her party won the 1990 election but has been denied power by Myanmar’s ruling junta for the past 20 years, and now faces dissolution given the restrictions imposed on its leader.

EU ministers repeated calls for the release of political prisoners and detainees, including Suu Kyi, and said it could “revise, amend or reinforce” sanctions imposed on the basis of the Myanmar junta’s reactions.

“The EU stands ready to respond positively to genuine progress,” the ministers stressed.