Burma and the US

Burma/Myanmar is my country of research for this class, so I looked for news about it. I found this article:



http://www.bbc.co.uk/burmese/news/story/2004/12/041201_thursday_dawn.shtml



Today, the US Congress voted for a one-year extension of sanctions over Burma, because of their deplorable human rights record.

The main goal of the sanctions is to gain freedom for more than one-thousand
political prisoners -- the most prominent of whom is the Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi also won the democratic election in 1995 but has never been allowed into office. The military basically controls the country.



The US sanctions ban imports from Burma and also denies US visas to Burma.



I guess this is sort of a form of "blackmail" in which the US (and perhaps other countries) do not allow Burma to export things, thereby harming their economy (which is in bad shape anyway) unless the Burmese people change their ways - to a real democracy.



What do you think about this kind of behavior? Is it helpful or harmful, or neither?