    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 42 (Monday, October 22, 2007)]
    [Pages 1377-1378]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Message to the Congress Reporting on Blocking Property and Prohibiting
    Certain Transactions Related to Burma

    October 18, 2007

    To the Congress of the United States:

        Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50
    U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an
    Executive Order (the ``Order'') that expands the scope of the national
    emergency declared in Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, and takes
    additional steps with respect to that national emergency.
        In 1997, the United States put in place a prohibition on new
    investment in Burma in response to the Government of Burma's large-scale
    repression of the democratic opposition in that country. On July 28,
    2003, those sanctions were expanded by steps taken in Executive Order
    13310, which contained prohibitions implementing sections 3 and 4 of the
    Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-61) and
    supplemented that Act with additional restrictions. I have now
    determined that the Government of Burma's continued repression of the
    democratic opposition in Burma, manifested most recently in the violent
    response to peaceful demonstrations, the commission of human rights
    abuses related to political repression, and engagement in public
    corruption, including by diverting or misusing Burmese public assets or
    by misusing public authority, warrant an expansion of the existing
    sanctions.

    [[Page 1378]]

        The order incorporates existing designation criteria set forth in
    Executive Order 13310, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury, after
    consultation with the Secretary of State, to designate any person
    determined to be a senior official of the Government of Burma, the State
    Peace and Development Council of Burma, the Union Solidarity and
    Development Association of Burma, or any successor entity to any of the
    foregoing. The order blocks the property and interests in property in
    the United States of persons listed in the Annex to the order and
    provides additional criteria for designations of persons determined by
    the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of
    State, to be responsible for, or to have participated in, human rights
    abuses related to political repression in Burma; to be engaged, or to
    have engaged, in activities facilitating public corruption by senior
    officials of the Government of Burma; to have materially assisted,
    sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical
    support for, or goods or services in support of, the Government of
    Burma, the State Peace and Development Council of Burma, the Union
    Solidarity and Development Association of Burma, any successor entity to
    any of the foregoing, any senior official of any of the foregoing, or
    any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant
    to Executive Order 13310 or section 1(b)(i)-(v) of the order; to be
    owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on
    behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and
    interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13310 or
    section 1(b)(i)-(v) of the order; or to be a spouse or dependent child
    of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked
    pursuant to the order or Executive Order 13310.
        The order leaves in place the existing prohibitions on new
    investment, the exportation or reexportation to Burma of financial
    services, and the importation of any article that is a product of Burma,
    which were put into effect in Executive Order 13047 and Executive Order
    13310.
        I delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation
    with the Secretary of State, the authority to take such actions,
    including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all
    powers granted to the President by IEEPA and section 4 of the Burmese
    Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 as may be necessary to carry out the
    purposes of the order.
        I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
                                                    George W. Bush
     The White House,
     October 18, 2007.

    Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    October 19.