Bush plans to pressure Myanmar

new york -- In a show of support for anti-government protesters in Myanmar, President Bush plans to announce toughened sanctions today to build on U.S. pressure against the military government there, his national security advisor said.

Bush plans to use a speech at the U.N. General Assembly to outline the new efforts to force the military rulers to accede to the demands of the democracy movement in the Southeast Asian nation, Stephen Hadley said.

The U.S. sanctions will include efforts to limit travel and financial transactions by key Myanmar government members and their families. Those steps will be a concrete element in a broader speech in which Bush will advance general arguments in favor of human rights. In particular, Bush will seek to promote greater access to education, healthcare and nutrition in underdeveloped regions, White House officials said.

The president began a three-day visit to New York on Monday for the meeting of the General Assembly, which is beginning its 63rd annual session today. He met privately at the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who now represents the quartet -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union -- seeking to bring about a broad peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

As previewed by White House officials, the General Assembly speech today will veer away from the themes of terrorism and war that were the foundation of Bush’s first speeches at the U.N.

He was likely to turn to elements of foreign policy that carry less of an edge while still encouraging the spread of democracy and the fight against tyranny, officials indicated.

Unfriendly political world

The shift in tone comes at a time when Bush is struggling in a political world grown increasingly unfriendly, both at home and abroad.

It was at the U.N. last year that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- never a friend of Bush -- likened the American president to a visitor from the underworld, saying, “The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today.”

But even international allies are growing skittish. Britain, under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hopes to scale down its commitment of troops in Iraq. And at home, notwithstanding the Democrats’ inability to force Bush’s hand in Iraq, there are few signs that public opposition to the war is weakening.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush would focus on the U.N.’s responsibility “to address immediate human needs.”

Perino said Bush would outline an agenda covering four broad areas: tyranny and violence, hunger and disease, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty and despair. She said Bush would tell the General Assembly that regardless of differences on other issues, “these are areas where they can all agree and we can all work together.”

But the president’s history of laying out a hard line and challenging the U.N. to join him frequently has left him searching for friends in an organization that has been described with scorn by the White House.

By contrast, the call for cooperation on a humanitarian agenda “certainly is a stronger message for a U.S. president than challenging the relevance of the United Nations,” said P.J. Crowley, a senior fellow and the director for homeland security at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington.

“But there is so much water under the bridge between the president and the institution,” said Crowley, who as an Air Force officer was a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He suggested that the war in Iraq would cast doubt on the president’s sincerity in promoting humanitarian goals.

Myanmar concerns

The stepped-up pressure on Myanmar, also known as Burma, reflects a trend within the administration that began even before the new street protests there. The president’s wife, Laura, has expressed her concerns both behind the scenes and in press interviews.

The U.S. and Western allies imposed a first set of sanctions in 2003, banning imports and freezing assets of government officials. Hadley, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to New York, said the additional sanctions would be aimed at key members of the regime “and those that provide financial support to them,” and would encourage the U.N. and individual countries to support political change there.

On Monday, nearly a week of protests in Myanmar spread to several cities, with tens of thousands of demonstrators joining Buddhist monks on the streets of the country’s biggest city, Yangon, also known as Rangoon. Residents of Sittwe said that all 100,000 who live there joined the protest, the Reuters news agency reported.

Several hundred monks marched into a pagoda today, despite warnings that military action might be taken against protesters, the agency said.

Noting the monks’ role, Hadley said the administration hoped to combine internal and external pressure “to try and force the regime into a change,” leading to the release of political prisoners and an evolution toward democracy.

He said Bush was unlikely to be specific about the sanctions, “so that people don’t, quite frankly, hide their assets before the sanctions come into force.”

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james.gerstenzang @latimes.com