Bush condemns Myanmar vote
US president also signs legislation targeting Myanmar’s state-owned companies.
In his May Day message carried by state media on Thursday, Senior General Than Shwe, the country’s leader, urged workers to back the new constitution.
State firms targeted
On Thursday, Bush signed an order to freeze the assets of state-owned firms in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
“These companies, in industries such as gems and timber, exploit the labour of the downtrodden Burmese people, but enrich only the generals,” Bush said on Thursday.
“Over the past eight months, my administration has tightened sanctions on the regime.
“We’ve imposed visa bans on the junta’s generals and their families and their cronies, trying to send a clear message, and we hope the rest of the world follows as well.”
The new US law allows the Bush administration to crack down on enterprises owned by the government of Myanmar.
The US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified Myanmar Gem Enterprise, Myanmar Pearl Enterprise and Myanmar Timber Enterprise as firms owned or controlled by the state.
John Rankin, a department spokesman, said the new order blocks any assets found in the US belonging to the three companies and bars Americans from doing business with them.
Rankin said the three companies were picked because they were helping to finance the military government which ordered a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks last September.