The United States on Wednesday sanctioned two Myanmar banks and the junta’s ministry of defense. File photo by Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE
June 22 (UPI) — The United States imposed sanctions against Myanmar’s two largest regime-controlled banks and its ministry of defense on Wednesday as the Biden administration targets revenue sources propping up the military junta and its ability to repress its people.
Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank were blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday for enabling the military junta to make foreign market transactions, while its defense ministry was hit over its control of armed forces that have been violently repressing its people since seizing the government in a early 2021 coup.
“Burma’s military regime has leveraged state-run access to international markets to import weapons and material, including from sanctioned Russian entities, to continue its violence and oppression,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial intelligence Brain Nelson said in a statement, while referring to Myanmar by its other name.
Myanmar has been ruled by its military since its coup of Feb. 1 2021, that saw the overthrowing of its civilian-led government and the jailing of its leaders, including Noel Peace Prize-winner Dawn Aung San Suu Kyi.
Widespread and ongoing public opposition to the Junta has been met with a bloody crackdown that has come to include the use of aerial attacks. In May, Human Rights Watch accused the junta of committing an apparent war crime when a month earlier it dropped a thermobaric munition on an building in opposition-controlled territory.
The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners watchdog organization says 3,685 people have been killed by the military since the coup.
The banks targeted by the Biden administration on Wednesday convert the local currency of kyat to U.S. dollars and euros, which the Treasury said allows junta-owned businesses to access international markets via offshore accounts, while allowing sanctioned military entities to purchase arms and other materials from foreign nations.
Treasury officials hit the ministry with sanctions on accusations that since the coup it has imported at least $1 billion worth goods and materials, including from sanctioned Russia.
The sanctions come as Myanmar civil society groups have repeatedly called for the banks to be blacklisted and for similar measures to be imposed against its gas industry.
U.S. nonprofit EarthRights International, while applauding the Wednesday sanctions, urged the United States to follow the European Union and sanction Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, the junta’s largest source of foreign currency, which the 27-member bloc did in February of 2022.
“There is no ‘silver bullet’ that will end the ongoing atrocities in Myanmar, but a scattergun approach where the U.S. sanctions banks and the EU sanctions the gas sector leaves too many gaps,” Keith Slack, EarthRights international director of strategy and campaigns, said in a statement.
“The international community has waited too long to take the obvious step of placing multilateral sanctions on the military’s highest value assets.”
Myanmar’s exiled opposition leader, acting President Duwa Lashi La, also welcomed the sanctions Wednesday but called for more to be done.
“Int’l actors must stop junta using FX and block their revenue flows such as oil and gas sector,” he tweeted.