More than ten days after the military coup in Myanmar, the United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on ten current and former military officers who were behind the coup against the democratically elected government in the country.
It needs to be mentioned that the then President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested after the coup.
The generals and military officers who will face the heat of the sanctions are Commander-in-chief of the armed forces Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-chief Soe Win, First Vice-President and retired Lieutenant General Myint Swe and Lieutenant Generals Sein Win, Soe Htut and Ye Aung. In addition, four other individuals associated with the armed forces have also been put under sanction.
Commenting on the development, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “These designations specifically target current or former members of the military who played a leading role in the overthrow of Burma’s (Myanmar) democratically elected government. They do not target the economy or people of Burma, and we have gone to great lengths to ensure we do not add to the humanitarian plight of the Burmese people.”
It needs to be mentioned that former State Counsellor Aung San Auu Kyi has throughout her long political career strived for greater democracy in the South-east Asian country. After the 2015 election in which her party (the National League for Democracy) won a majority of the seats in the Burmese Parliament she was elected as the State Counsellor as, according to the Constitution, an individual having a foreign spouse cannot be made the President (both her late husband and two sons are of British nationality).
The 2015 polls were the first free and fair elections held in the country since 1990, which was declared invalid by the military government after the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) victory.
Anyway, one thing is clear. The United States after the coming to power of Joe Biden is not going to overlook the dictatorial designs of the military leadership of the South-east Asian country.
