BURMA: The US House of Representatives has voted almost unanimously to impose a trade blockade on Burma in protest at the detention of the pro-democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yesterday's vote, by 418 votes to two, would make an embargo a virtual certainty. A blockade has already been overwhelmingly approved by 97 votes to one in the Senate and the White House has indicated that President Bush would sign the trade ban into law.
The vote comes in the same week that the British Foreign Office wrote to British tour operators asking them to stop arranging holidays to Burma because of the regime's human rights record.
The House bill would ban imports from Burma for three years, expand the current ban on travel to the US by members of the military government and codify the existing policy of opposing new international loans or technical assistance to the country.
The Senate has backed an indefinite embargo, but US businesses have complained that sanctions should be made temporary because, once imposed by Congress, they are difficult to lift.
The differences between the Senate and House bills will have to be reconciled at a joint meeting on the issue and the Senate is expected to seek a rapid compromise. "The US and Europe are united in our support for Burmese democrats and we are determined to squeeze the military dictatorship," Senator John McCain said yesterday.
Ms Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel peace prize, has been held by Burma's military government since May 30th, after her motorcade was ambushed by government loyalists. Her National League for Democracy won an election in 1990 but was blocked from taking power. She has spent more than half the time since then under house arrest.