Sanctions and Troops

After a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers on Monday, Oct. 15, a decision was made to broaden existing sanctions that include visa bans and asset freezes on Myanmar's military and government officials as well as their relatives, and new steps targeting the country's key timber, metals and gemstone sectors.

"The EU deems it necessary to increase direct pressure on the regime," the ministers said in a statement issued after talks in Luxembourg. "It will therefore adopt a package of measures that do not harm the general population but that target those responsible for the violent crackdown and the overall political stalemate in the country."

EU sanctions on hold while mission planned

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters the sanctions would not be immediately implemented. Kouchner added that the EU was also considering sending a mission to Myanmar, formerly named Burma, to hold talks with the military rulers on reconciliation with the country's domestic political opponents.

EU External Relations Commission Benita Ferrero-Walder said she backed a delay in the imposition of the additional sanctions to support the mission of UN envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambarai.

"He is the only one who has a chance for leverage at the moment," she said. "I think he should have sticks and carrots in order to be able to work."

She said the EU wanted to see the release of political prisoners and the start of a process of dialogue with opponents.

The foreign ministers also gave their final approval during the meeting to deploy a 3,000-strong EU peacekeeping force to help refugees and the displaced along Darfur's borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.

Mostly French peacekeeping force set for Chad

Kouchner said that the EU force -- around half of which would be made up of French troops -- would be involved in improving security and making it easier for aid groups to do their work in the camps that border Sudan's Darfur region.

"It is a reconstruction mission, a development mission and a humanitarian one," the French foreign minister said. He added that security needed to be assured for the refugees but the mission would not include action to secure the border areas.

United Nations estimates show that almost 3 million people have been uprooted by conflicts in the region, including the fighting in Darfur and unrelated rebellions in Chad and the Central African Republic. Some 2.25 million former Darfur residents are currently displaced within their own country.

The EU foreign ministers also appealed to northern and southern Sudanese political factions to stick to a 2005 peace pact, fearing that a collapse of the delicate treaty in that unrelated Sudanese conflict could lead to new civil war complicating international efforts to end the Darfur crisis.