President Joe Biden talks about the situation in Myanmar at the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, February 10, 2021.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will impose immediate sanctions against military leaders in Myanmar who directed a coup that led to the arrest of the country’s democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and others.
Biden also said that “the Myanmar military must renounce the power they have seized” and free the prisoners from the coup.
“We will identify a first round of targets this week and we will also impose strong controls on exports,” said Biden in announcing two new executive orders related to the sanctions.
The president said he would prevent Burmese generals from accessing $ 1 billion in Myanmar funds held in the United States.
Biden also said, “We are freezing US assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health, civil society groups and other areas that directly benefit the people of Burma.”
And he asked the military not to use violence against demonstrators who exercise their democratic rights to oppose the coup.
Biden last week condemned the military takeover of the civilian government, calling it “a direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law”.
Nobel winner Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the election in Myanmar last November.
But the generals behind the coup claimed that the election was fraudulent.
Myanmar citizens, including monks and nurses, took to the streets in protest against the coup, dressed in the red color of the NLD party.
In response, the military banned demonstrations and meetings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, and imposed a curfew from 8 pm to 4 am in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s first and second largest cities.
The military also banned citizens from using the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram “until further notice”.
The United States formally eased previous sanctions against Myanmar in 2012 to allow US dollars to enter the country, withholding certain investments in Myanmar’s armed forces and its Ministry of Defense
But a clause in the movement included the ability to enforce sanctions on “those who undermine the reform process and commit human rights abuses”.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week: “We certainly saw with great alarm what happened in Burma, but I don’t see a US military role now.
These are breaking news. Check back for updates.