Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Burma sanctions may be eased – Cameron

A day before his historic visit to Burma, Prime Minister David Cameron has praised Burma’s progress in implementing democratic reforms and said the UK may ease sanctions on the country.

Cameron said recent developments in Burma were welcome but he wanted to see the ground situation himself, to assess whether the progress was ‘irreversible’.

"If Burma moves towards democracy then we should respond in kind, and we should not be slow in doing that.

"But first I want to go and see for myself on the ground how things are going.

"I hope that following my meetings I will have the confidence to go back to my country, back to others in the European Union, and argue that change in Burma is irreversible it a world of difficult and darkness and all sorts of problems here is one bright light we should encourage."

But the chair of the all party parliamentary group on Burma said, although there had been progress, it was too soon to consider the lifting of arms embargo and key industries such as mining.

"We have still not seen any repressive laws repealed and the constitution has not changed which means the military still have a monopoly of power," Baroness Kinnock told the BBC.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.