U.S. imposes sanctions on Myanmar military commander over Rohingya abuses
REUTERS
17-07-2019
FILE PHOTO - Myanmar military commander-in-chief, Senior General
Min Aung Hlaing, attends a military exercise at Ayeyarwaddy delta region
in Myanmar, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lynn Bo Bo/Pool
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions on the Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other military leaders over extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims, barring them from entry to the United States.
The steps, which also covered Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, Soe Win, and two other senior commanders and their families, are the strongest the United States has taken in response to massacres of minority Rohingyas in Myanmar, also known as Burma. “We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement in making the announcement.
Pompeo said a recent disclosure that Min Aung Hlaing ordered the release of soldiers convicted of extrajudicial killings at the village of Inn Din during the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in 2017 was “one egregious example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its senior leadership.”
“The Commander-in-Chief released these criminals after only months in prison, while the journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn Din were jailed for more than 500 days,” Pompeo said.
The Inn Din massacre was uncovered by two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than 16 months behind bars on charges of obtaining state secrets. The two were released in an amnesty on May 6.
The U.S. announcement came on the first day of an international ministerial conference on religious freedom hosted by Pompeo at the State Department that was attended by Rohingya representatives.
A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. U.N. investigators have said that Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.”
A United Nations investigator said this month that Myanmar security forces and insurgents were committing human rights violations against civilians that may amount to fresh war crimes.
Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Dan Grebler
FILE
PHOTO - Myanmar military commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung
Hlaing, attends a military exercise at Ayeyarwaddy delta region in
Myanmar, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lynn Bo Bo/Pool
FILE
PHOTO - Myanmar military commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung
Hlaing, attends a military exercise at Ayeyarwaddy delta region in
Myanmar, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lynn Bo Bo/Pool
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