Posted on Fri, Oct. 19, 2007
By ANNE GEARAN and BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON --
President Bush on Thursday punished two perennial adversaries - Myanmar
and Cuba - for alleged "human trafficking," the forced labor and
prostitution that the United States calls a modern-day form of slavery.
Bush chose not to come down hard on several other countries where the
State Department found serious trafficking problems, including important
Middle East allies such as Saudi Arabia. He approved partial punishment,
in the form of financial sanctions, against Iran and other nations where
the United States holds out hope that limited cultural or educational
outreach may deter abuses.
The Bush administration also lifted the immediate threat of sanctions
from two nations that had made progress in the months since the State
Department issued a preliminary assessment of worldwide trafficking
abuses in June.
Notably, the administration chose to change its assessment of Kuwait, a
key Mideast ally, because Kuwait recently opened a long-promised shelter
for abuse victims, often Asian women forced to work as virtual house
slaves in the homes of wealthy Kuwaitis.
"It's a nascent effort, but we made a conclusion that Kuwait had taken
steps that merited an upgrade," said Mark Lagon, head of a State
Department office that compiled the annual list required by Congress.
The State Department gives countries listed as serious violators a
chance to address the problems before the White House issues its
findings and applies sanctions. In the case of Kuwait and equatorial
Guinea, the governments made enough gains to merit an upgrade, Lagon said.
Countries on the list are subject to sanctions for not doing enough to
stop the yearly flow of some 800,000 people across international borders
for the sex trade and other forms of forced and indentured labor. About
80 percent of those people are female, and up to half of them are children.
The Bush administration determined that Myanmar, also known as Burma, is
ineligible for U.S. aid for failing to meet the minimum standards of
fighting trafficking or make significant efforts to do so. On the same
grounds, Cuba's officials and employees will not be eligible for
educational and cultural exchange programs.
Those are the same two countries that suffered sanctions for human
trafficking last year.
Bush also declared Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and Iran in line for
full sanctions.
But in each of those cases, Bush invoked his waiver authority to
continue providing some U.S. aid to those countries, such as for
cultural exchanges or for programs that help victims of trafficking. The
White House determined that continuing the flow of money is in the
national interest of the United States.
Bush waived all sanctions against eight countries: Algeria, Bahrain,
Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan - all on the
same grounds that doing so would serve the United States' strategic
interests with these countries.
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