US sanctions Myanmar military and junta leaders for attacks

Washington - The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed financial sanctions on 16 people and the newly created State Administration Council

The US placed more members of Myanmar’s ruling military junta on a financial blacklist on Monday for the deadly attacks against civilians following the February coup in the southeast Asian nation.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed financial sanctions on 16 people and the newly created State Administration Council. The designation freezes any assets they have within a US jurisdiction and bars anyone within a US jurisdiction from conducting any financial transactions with them.

Thirteen of the people are senior members of Myanmar’s military, which seized control of the country in February and has killed hundreds of people, including children, to suppress opposition.

The other three are adult children of three senior military officials who were previously designated for US sanctions.

Treasury said in a statement announcing the new sanctions that the Myanmar military is responsible for deadly attacks on civilians and the State Administration Council was created by the armed forces “to support the unlawful overthrow of the democratically elected civilian government”.

It designated four members of the council as well as senior members of the military junta, including the governor of the central bank, the minister of international cooperation and the commerce minister.

The military on February 1 arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in the November 8 polls and should have secured a second five-year term in office. The US has imposed several rounds of sanctions in response.

The military, which ran the country also known as Burma for more than 50 years until 2015, then prevented elected lawmakers from convening a new session of Parliament and declared a state of emergency and said it would run the country until new elections were held. Security forces have killed hundreds of people, including bystanders, as it attempts to suppress protests and opposition.

• Asia