The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Myanmar businessman and two others involved in the purchase of Russian-made weapons from Belarus for the government that has taken power in the Southeast Asian country. at the beginning of last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The army organized a coup in February 2021, detain democratic leaders including Nobel laureates Aung San Suu Kyiprotests were then violently suppressed, sparking a spiraling conflict.
In a statement, the US Treasury Department said it would impose sanctions on Myanmar businessman Aung Moe Myint, the son of a military officer, who it said facilitated for arms deals, including missiles and aircraft, as well as the company he founded, Dynasty International Ltd., and two of its directors.
Reuters could not reach Aung Moe Myint for comment.
This action freezes any of the designated US assets and generally prevents Americans from trading with them.
Blink in one statement quote what Myanmar does four activists in july and a a deadly attack on a school by military helicopter last month. He also pointed to the role the three people sanctioned on Thursday are said to have played in purchasing Russian-made weapons from Belarus.
“These designations also refer to the long-standing relationship of the Burmese military with Russian and the Belarusian army,” Blinken said, using the country’s old name.
“We will continue to use our sanctions agencies to target people in Burma and elsewhere who support Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia’s and Belarus’s facilitation.” sue the Burmese regime for violence against its own people.”
Russia is the main source of military hardware for the Myanmar military and has provided diplomatic cover amid international condemnation of the coup. Leader of Junta Min Aung Hlaing visited Russia twice in recent months.
The State Department also barred former Myanmar police chief and Deputy Interior Minister Than Hlaing from traveling to the United States for involvement in human rights abuses, the Treasury said, citing the extrajudicial killings of people in the United States. peaceful protest in February 2021.
The Myanmar Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Western nations have enacted several rounds of sanctions against the military and its businesses since the coup, but efforts to isolate the government have failed to stop the slide into what one faction Americans called civil war.
The sanctions, including those issued on Thursday, do not target Myanmar’s gas sales, the military’s biggest source of foreign revenue, a move that anti-army forces and those Human rights advocates claim that can influence the behavior of the military.
“The current US sanctions policy against Myanmar is not working,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “This is like taking only half a dose of a drug and then hoping it will work like a full dose.”
