As I said in my testimony, I support the measured engagement approach to the changes in the country. Mainly, my position is not too fast and not too slow; also, not too much and not too little.
How can we balance between too much and too little and too fast and too slow? This is something that your government or other governments have to decide. But when you have made the decision, I hope you will have consulted with civil society and key stakeholders about how to move forward. It is something I shall be encouraging. At the same time, it is something that should not be too rewarding. This is a very thin line.
But look at the Canadian lifting of sanctions. It lifts all, except the arms embargo. Even the European Union, when they suspended sanctions, didn't lift in the extractive industries, because those are entirely related to major human rights violations. That's why the European Union did not lift the sanctions on the extractive industries centres. The United States is doing the same. That's why the Canadian government should consider restoring sanctions on these centres.
You asked me about the designated persons. This is something I am arguing about with the United States government in Washington, D.C., too. The United States government has a specially designated nation list, an SDN list, which is for targeted sanctions. The Canadian government has a similar list.
I looked at those lists. The United States list on Burma is about 20 pages long, with about 500 entries—names and organizations. But there are so many repeated entries. So I cleaned it up, and finally I ended with only 25 former and current officials of the regime and five family members, twelve crony business person entries, eleven state enterprises, and four military co-enterprises on the United States SDN list.
I looked at the Canadian list. It's the same thing; there are only 40 persons from the regime, current and former, plus the cronies.
These are not enough. There are so many more in Burma. They are still at large from the United States and Canadian and any other sanctions.
So when you are lifting the sanctions, you have to update the designated person list and you have to include more cronies and who were not on the list.
I have the list I submitted to the United States government. I will submit it to you guys too, for your reference.