U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

The White House

For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 5, 2008

Mrs. Bush's Statement on Burma

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

3:05 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, everybody, for coming out. I just want to make a few comments about Burma.

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In response to the regime's continued repression, President Bush has instructed the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze assets of Burmese state-owned companies that are held in U.S. banks. This adds to actions last year to expand U.S. sanctions against Burma's regime, and to tighten sanctions against its top leaders. We thank the European Union, Canada and Australia for joining the United States in imposing similar restrictions. And we appeal to China, India, and Burma's fellow ASEAN members to use their influence to encourage a democratic transition.

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Q: Quick follow on that. Do you think that they have blood on their hands for that lack of warning?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I just think it's very, very important -- that we know already that they are very inept; that they have not been able to govern in a way that lets their company -- country, for one thing, build an economy. This is a country that's rich in natural resources. Their natural resources are being depleted as they sell them off, as far as we can tell from the outside, for the financial benefit of the regime itself and not for the good of the people. We know that.

We know these huge forests -- teak and mahogany forests may be being depleted -- that they have. Their gem shows -- last year many American gem countries [sic] and European gem countries [sic] refused to go to the big gem auctions because they didn't want to prop up the government. But we do know that a lot of -- that China, for instance, a lot of Chinese gem buyers did go.

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END

3:21 P.M. EDT