WASHINGTON: The United States and its allies will impose additional sanctions on Myanmar on Tuesday (Jan 31), marking the two-year anniversary of the crackdown on energy officials and members of the junta, among others.
Washington has imposed sanctions on the Union Election Commission, mining enterprises, energy officials and current and former military officials, according to a Treasury Department statement. Details of the US move were first reported by Reuters.
This is the first time the United States has targeted Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) officials under the current Myanmar sanctions program, a Treasury spokesman said.
Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom also announced sanctions on Tuesday.
Myanmar’s top general led a coup in February 2021 after five years of power-sharing under a quasi-civilian political system created by the military, leading to a decade of unprecedented reform.
The country has been in chaos ever since, with a resistance movement fighting the army on multiple fronts after a bloody crackdown on its opponents that saw Western sanctions reimposed.
The US move on Tuesday will target the managing director and deputy managing director of the state-owned MOGE, which is the junta’s single largest revenue-generating state-owned enterprise, according to the Treasury statement.
Human rights advocates have called for sanctions on MOGE, but Washington has so far refrained from naming the state-owned enterprise.
Among those to be named by Washington was Union Energy Minister Myo Myint Oo, who Treasury said represents the Myanmar government in international and domestic energy sector meetings and manages the state-owned entities involved in production and export of oil and gas. .
Mining Enterprise No. 1 and Mining Enterprise No. 2, the two state-owned enterprises, as well as the Union Election Commission, to be hit with sanctions from the United States.
The army has promised to hold an election in August this year. On Friday, the junta announced strict requirements for parties to compete in the election, including a massive increase in their membership, a measure that could sideline the military opponents and consolidate their grip on power.
The rules favor the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military proxy studded with former generals, who were fielded by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 2015 and 2020 elections.
The NLD in November described the election as “fake” and said it would not recognize it. Western governments have also dismissed the election as a sham.
