Two years on from Burma coup, West weighs in with more sanctions
On 31 January – the day before the two-year anniversary of the military coup d’état deposing Burma’s democratically elected government – the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) announced the designation of six individuals and three entities connected to Burma’s military regime pursuant to Executive Order 14014.
The UK and Australia have also sanctioned entities. The UK has designated ‘two companies and two individuals, all associated with what is known as the Asia Sun group, and integral to the aviation fuel industry in Myanmar [and which] supplies fuel to the Myanmar Air Force enabling its barbaric air raiding campaign in an attempt to maintain power, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands of Myanmar’s people in the process.’ Australia has designated 16 members of the military regime, and in addition, ‘Myanmar military controlled entities, Myanmar Economic Public Holdings Ltd (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC)’ which will also be subject to targeted financial sanctions.
For its part, the European Union has said that ‘In the absence of any swift progress on the situation in Myanmar, the EU stands ready to adopt further restrictive measures against those directly responsible for and those abetting the undermining of democracy and the serious human rights violations in the country.’
