[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 72 (Friday, May 18, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BURMA SANCTIONS

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                          HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 18, 2012

  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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