Burma's Junta Imposes Curfew, Bans Gatherings

The junta and its leader, Gen. Than Shwe, have been urged to abandon their exclusive grip on power as public concern over the increasingly tense situation surges across Asia and beyond.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," Bush said at the United Nations. "Basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship are severely restricted. Ethnic minorities are persecuted. Forced child labor, human trafficking and rape are common. The regime is holding more than 1,000 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party was elected overwhelmingly by the Burmese people in 1990."

Bush called on other nations "to use their diplomatic and economic leverage to help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom." Although he did not mention any country by name, it was a message aimed particularly at China, the key trading partner and ally of the Burmese government.

China has not joined the chorus of condemnation. Instead, it reiterated its refusal to pressure for change in public. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Chinese government hopes Burma's rulers can "maintain stability and resolve the issue in its own way," according to news agency reports from Beijing.

The United States imposed stringent economic sanctions on Burma in 1997 and amplified them in 2003. But some human rights activists who closely track the issue said the latest sanctions may be more effective if the administration follows its own model in cutting off illicit money held by North Korea in foreign banks. Bush and White House officials did not discuss in detail how the new restrictions would work but said they would target specific individuals as opposed to the general sanctions now on the books.

Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch has consulted with administration officials on the matter. "Even though the generals in Burma are profoundly isolated from their own people and the world, they still have to bank somewhere and that makes them vulnerable," he said. "There's a vulnerability that's never been exploited by the international community. If they can't bank anywhere, they can't buy things, including guns."

Malinowski added that leaders of the junta may be surprised to find their access to cash cut off.

"It will have an impact," he said, "when the wife of the leading general walks into his bedroom in the morning and starts screaming at him, 'What happened to our money?' "

Burma has occupied a prominent spot on the White House radar screen since first lady Laura Bush became personally upset about the situation. In recent weeks, she has called on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to urge more action on Burma and summoned reporters to condemn the government -- unusually public moves by the first lady.

"What we're trying to do is . . . ratchet up the pressure on this regime, to get them to understand that there is a time now for a political transition and that they should be using the turmoil in the country as a vehicle for planning and achieving that transition, rather than trying to crack down on it and turn the clock back to a time that the Burmese people are no longer willing to tolerate," said national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

Staff writer Peter Baker at the United Nations contributed to this report.