US marks anniversary of Myanmar coup with further sanctions
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The sanctions were the latest aimed at the fuel that the Myanmar junta uses to conduct aerial bombings in its war with anti-coup forces.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - The United States on Jan 31 imposed further sanctions on Myanmar, marking the third-year anniversary of the coup, as Washington targeted two entities and several people it said were closely associated with the junta.
The sanctions were the latest aimed at the fuel that the junta uses to conduct aerial bombings in its war with anti-coup forces, as well as the military’s ability to produce arms. Civilians have often been targeted in the war.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement it targeted the Shwe Byain Phyu Group of Companies, its owner Thein Win Zaw, his wife and two adult children.
The US Treasury said the company imports and distributes petroleum for the military, and has a profit-sharing relationship with military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MFHI), which Washington imposed sanctions on in 2021.
MEHL-owned shipping firm Myanmar Five Star Line, which Washington said ships materials for domestic weapons production for the military, was targeted too.
The Treasury Department said the two entities have enabled the purchase of foreign currency and the import of petroleum and other materials on behalf of the junta.
“We are taking this action to target the regime’s sources of revenue that support military activities against civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, reiterating Washington’s call for the military to change course.
Myanmar has been locked in conflict since the military seized power in a coup on Feb 1, 2021, that sparked nationwide chaos and abruptly ended a decade of tentative democracy and economic reform.
The sanctions, which freeze any US assets of those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them, come as junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is under pressure after a series of battlefield defeats that have seen rebel groups take control of at least 35 towns since October.
The generals are facing their biggest challenge since first taking control of the former British colony in 1962, with a youth-led pro-democracy uprising morphing into an armed resistance movement after a lethal crackdown on a wave of protests and post-coup dissent.
The junta has deployed heavy artillery and fighter jets to try to suppress militias allied with a shadow government and ethnic minority armies, several of which launched a coordinated offensive in October that stunned the military and has dented its battlefield credibility.
About 2.3 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations, while efforts by Myanmar’s South-east Asian neighbours to initiate dialogue have seen no progress.
“The United States, along with our allies and partners, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to profit from, and provide support for, the violent oppression of the people of Burma,” Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said, using the old name for Myanmar. REUTERS
