SYDNEY: Australia said Monday it will lift sanctions against Myanmar's president and more than 200 others who are currently under travel and financial bans, after a series of reforms in the past year.
However, some 130 names will remain on the restricted list, including senior members of the military and others suspected of human rights abuses, Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The decision comes just days after British Prime Minister David Cameron and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi issued a joint call for the suspension of sanctions against the former pariah state after landmark talks.However, some 130 names will remain on the restricted list, including senior members of the military and others suspected of human rights abuses, Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
European Union (EU) foreign ministers are expected to act on the issue later this month.
"We're easing sanctions after talking to Aung San Suu Kyi and others in the opposition, after talking to the government itself, (and) after talking to other nations," Carr said.
Speaking from London where he was to meet British Foreign Secretary William Hague, he said it meant the number of people in the Myanmar government subject to restrictions would be reduced from 392 to about 130.
"That removes many of the civilians from the list, and that includes President Thein Sein and government ministers," he said. "But senior serving military officers and people of human rights interest will stay subject to those Australian sanctions."
Australia also has a long-standing ban on defence exports, which remains in place. Canberra does not impose general trade sanctions, although two-way trade is low and focuses mostly on wheat and other foodstuffs.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has surprised observers with a series of reforms following the end of nearly half a century of military rule, and historic by-elections this month have been widely praised. The elections gave Suu Kyi her first seat in parliament after spending 15 of the past 22 years locked up by the junta.
Canberra sent a team of five observers to track the polls but Carr warned that if progress was not continued, his sanctions decision could be reversed. "I think the president is sincere, I think he deserves these rewards but of course it's always possible to resume these sanctions," he said.
Thein Sein took office last year and has proven to be a reformist, accepting Suu Kyi and her party back into the mainstream and freeing hundreds of political prisoners.
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