Mizzima News

New Delhi - In a renewed pressure, United States' House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday voted unanimously to block Gems and Jewelries from Burma to enter into the US.

The vote, which ban Burmese Rubies from entering the US, is aimed at punishing the Burmese military regime for its failure to help its citizen recover from a Cyclone that swept the country in May and for its brutal crackdown on peaceful monks' protest last year.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said, the law discussed in the House on Tuesday is aimed to hit the Burmese regime 'where it hurts — in the wallet.'

Berman said blocking the import of Burmese gems into the United States and expanding financial sanctions, will substantially reduce hundreds of millions of dollars of the regime's income, which are used to continue suppressing its own citizens.

The bill, after the House has voted, will be sent back to the Senate, which in 2007 voted to bar Burmese woods and timbers to be imported to the US.

Tuesday's vote to bar gems from Burma is part of the US's economic sanctions against the Burmese military regime.

The US along with the European Union had further tightened economic sanctions against the Burmese regime following the brutal crackdown on Burmese monks' protest in September last year.