The United States imposed sanctions on a Myanmar businessman and two others involved in buying Russian-made weapons from Belarus for the junta that took power in the Southeast Asian country early last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
A coup in February 2021 resulted in a coup that detaining democratic leaders including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, then violently suppressed protests, sparking a spiraling conflict.
The US Treasury said in a statement that it was imposing sanctions on Myanmar businessman Aung Moe Myint, son of a military officer who facilitated arms deals including missiles and aircraft, as well as a company he founded, Dynasty International Company Limited, and two of his directors.
Reuters was unable to reach Aung Moe Myint for comment.
The action freezes US assets of those designated and prevents Americans from dealing with them.
In July, Myanmar spelled out a statement citing Myanmar s execution of four activists and a deadly attack on a school by a military helicopter last month. He pointed out that the three people sanctioned on Thursday played in obtaining Russian-produced arms from Belarus.
The designations also implicate the Burmese military's long-time ties to the Russian and Belarusian militaryes, according to Blinken, using the country's former name.
We will continue to use our sanctions authorities to target those in Burma and elsewhere supporting Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia and Belarus's support of the Burmese regime's violence against its own people. Russia is a main source of military hardware for the Myanmar military and has provided diplomatic cover amid international condemnation of the coup. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the junta, visited Russia twice in the last few months.
The Treasury said that the extrajudicial killings of peaceful protesters in February 2021 were not allowed by the State Department and the former Myanmar police chief and deputy home affairs minister Than Hlaing from traveling to the United States for his involvement in human rights violations.
Since the coup, western nations have issued numerous rounds of sanctions against the military and its businesses, but efforts to isolate the junta have failed to stop a slide into what a U.S. envoy called a civil war.
The sanctions issued on Thursday fall short of targeting Myanmar's gas sales, the military's largest source of foreign revenue, a move that anti-junta forces and human rights advocates say could influence the military's behavior.
John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch said that the US sanctions policy on Myanmar isn't working. This is like administering half doses of medicine and then hoping it will work like a full dose.