Burma: recent political and security developments

Burma’s international rehabilitation continues. However, critics argue that the pace of this rehabilitation is too fast because the outcome of the current Constitutional review process is not yet clear; a durable peace deal with the country’s ethnic insurgencies has not been achieved; and inter-communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims persists.

In April 2013, the European Union (EU) lifted most of the restrictive measures in force (only the arms embargo remains in place) against Burma, describing the process of reform in the country as “remarkable”, while acknowledging that major challenges remained to be overcome. The US has also relaxed its sanctions significantly, although less extensively than the EU. Bans on the importation of jade and rubies, and financial sanctions against specific individuals implicated in past human rights abuses, remain in force. In the months that followed, President Thein Sein began a series of official visits to Western countries (including the UK in July 2013), as did Aung San Suu Kyi (her recent visit to the UK was in October 2013). Levels of inward investment by Western multinationals, mainly in the extractive sector, increased markedly during the course of 2013. Burma took up the presidency of ASEAN in January 2014.

The UK Government has overall been upbeat about the progress being made in Burma, although it remains a “country of concern” on human rights. A decision to give military training to 30 Burmese military officers through a course conducted in January 2014 by the Defence Academy of the UK has proven controversial. The US Government has begun to re-establish defence ties with the Burmese military, carrying out in-country human rights training during 2013. More generally, there have been claims that Western countries have been too quick to welcome Burma back into the international fold, in doing so ignoring their own benchmarks for measuring progress.