President Joe Biden speaks about the situation in Myanmar at the South Court Auditorium of 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 on military leaders in Myanmar who led a coup that led to the detention of democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and others.
Biden also said the Myanmar military should “give up the power it has taken” and release the prisoners of the coup.
“We will set a first set of targets this week and we will also impose strict export controls,” Biden said in announcing two new executive decisions related to the sanctions.
The president said he will 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, and other areas that directly benefit the people of Burma.”
And he called on the military not to use force against protesters who exercise their democratic rights to object to the coup.
Biden had last week condemned the military takeover of the civilian-led government, calling it “a direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law.”
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the election in Myanmar last November with a landslide.
But the generals behind the coup claim the elections were fraudulent.
Myanmar citizens, including monks and nurses, took to the streets in protest of the coup, dressed in the red color of the NLD party.
In response, the army banned rallies and gatherings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, and imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s first and second largest cities.
The military also banned the use of the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram “until further notice” by civilians.
The US formally relaxed previous sanctions on Myanmar in 2012 to allow US dollars into the country, withholding certain investments in Myanmar’s armed forces and the Department of Defense.
But a clause in the move included the possibility of stepping up sanctions against “those who undermine the reform process and are guilty of human rights violations.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week: “We certainly watched with horror what happened in Burma, but I don’t see any American military role at this point.
This is the latest news. Check back regularly for updates.