WASHINGTON DC: the US government today struck four military commanders of Myanmar and two military units with punitive sanctions, accusing them of "serious violations of human rights" and "ethnic cleansing" in the violent expulsion of minority Rohingya
Military and border guard commanders Aung Kyaw Zaw, Khin Maung Su, Khin Hlaing and Thura San Lwin were accused of leading violent campaigns against Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine and minorities in the states of Kachin and Shan.
"Burmese security forces have launched violent campaigns against ethnic minority communities throughout Burma, including ethnic cleansing, massacres, assaults, extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations," said Sigal Mandelker, Deputy State Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the US Treasury, who announced sanctions.
The US Treasury Department said sanctions against individuals were intended as a warning for the safety of CES to end abuse of ethnic and religious minorities and to respect their rights.
The sanctions, aimed at blocking those mentioned from global financial and commercial networks and freezing foreign assets, were brought under the Global Magnitsky human rights Accountability Act, an American law originally aimed at Russia, but now it was expanded to punish rights abusers worldwide.
Aung Kyaw Zaw was chosen as the foreman of the operations that led approximately 700,000 Rohingya from their homes in the state of Rakhine in southwestern Myanmar, and to neighboring Bangladesh since 2016.
The campaign was characterized by countless extrajudicial executions , rape and burning of villages by security forces.
Khin Maung Soe was in charge of an order that took part in a Rohingya massacre on August 27, 2017 in Maung Nu, where soldiers "reportedly smashed, sexually abused, or otherwise killed dozens of Rohingya villagers" # 39 ;, said the Treasury.
Thura San Lwin was the leader of the Border Guard Police, reportedly responsible for extrajudicial killings, sexual assault and sexual assault against various minorities.
And Khin Hlaing was chosen for abuse by Kachin, Shan and Chinese minorities who were forced to serve as human shields for military units in combat with militias in November 2016.
The two military units that were also sanctioned for involvement in these abuses were the 33rd Light Infantry Division, who participated in Rohingya abuses, and the 99th Light Infantry Division, led by Khin Hlaing.
"There must be justice for the victims and those who work to discover these atrocities, with those responsible for these repulsive crimes," Mandelker said.
"We will continue to systematically unmask and account for human rights battlers in this region and many others and greatly appreciate the efforts of civil society doing the same.
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