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Canada wants sanctions against Burm (r)



Subject: Canada wants sanctions against Burma

Thursday March 13 9:11 PM EST 

Canada wants sanctions against Burma

OTTAWA, March 13 (UPI) _ Canada is urging several countries to take
collective action against Burma to
pressure the military junta in Rangoon to move toward democracy and respect
for human rights. 

Foreign Affairs Department official Christine Stewart says, however, that
Ottawa cannot act alone to
impose ``sanctions against a country like Burma.'' 

Stewart was speaking shortly after activists from the Canadian Friends of
Burma demonstrated outside the
Parliament building in Ottawa to urge the government to impost sanctions
against Burma, now officially
known as Myanmar. 

In response to a question by an opposition Reform Party member of
Parliament, Stewart said Canada is
speaking with other nations, particularly those in the region, ``and we hope
to be able to encourage them
 ... to take some collective action with us.'' 

The objective is to ``try to influence the government in Burma to change
(its) ways and promote good
governance and democracy and respect for human rights,'' she says. 

The demonstrators outside Parliament were commemorating the 9th anniversary
of mass pro-democracy
demonstrations in Rangoon, or Yangon. 

Reports trickling out of Burma later said the junta reacted to the mass
demonstrations with a campaign of
repression and massacres.