Myanmar advocates urge US to place sanctions on bank used by junta
World
Myanmar advocates urge US to place sanctions on bank used by junta
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington should impose sanctions on a Myanmar bank being used to circumvent existing US restrictions, advocates said, urging the outgoing Biden administration to cut off a key source of foreign currency for the country's military junta.
Dozens of Myanmar civil society groups wrote to the departments of State and the Treasury on Monday calling for the US to block the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank from using the dollar-based financial system and encourage other governments to do the same, according to a letter shared with Reuters.
"The military junta depends on foreign banks, jet fuel suppliers, and arms dealers to sustain its crimes against humanity," said Simon Billenness, executive director of the International Campaign for the Rohingya, one of the groups that signed the letter.
Myanmar's military overthrew the country's elected leaders in 2021 and then launched a bloody crackdown on protests, sparking a civil war that has displaced more than 3.1 million people, according to the UN.
"An opportunity exists to disrupt the military junta's international support networks at a time when the military is at its weakest point since the coup began in 2021," Billenness said.
The State Department confirmed it had received the letter but did not immediately have further comment.
Sanctions issued by Washington last year against two other state-owned banks have led the junta to shift to using Myanma Economic Bank to procure arms and to receive hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue, including from Myanmar's natural gas exports, according to a U.N. envoy's report in June.
Tell me why he's going to prison?
The coup in Myanmar came days after President Joe Biden took office. His administration immediately froze about $1 billion of Myanmar assets and gradually imposed sanctions on military leaders and businesses they rely on.
Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but both Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress support trying to deny the junta access to revenue.
