West mulls punishing Myanmar generals
> Policymakers under pressure to take action
WASHINGTON: The European Union and the US are considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar military leaders over an offensive that has driven more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the country, officials familiar with the discussions say.
Interviews with more than a dozen diplomats and government officials based in Washington, Yangon and Europe revealed that punitive measures aimed specifically at top generals are among a range of options being discussed in response to the crisis.
Nothing has yet been decided and Washington and Brussels may decide to hold off for now, the sources said.
There are also discussions about increasing aid for violence-riven Rakhine.
The active discussion of sanctions – not even on the table a month ago – shows how the dramatic exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s northwest is putting pressure on Western policymakers to act.
While much of the outcry overseas has focused on Nobel laureate and Myanmar’s national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, few Western diplomats see an alternative to her leadership.
Suu Kyi does not control the military, which still wields considerable power under Myanmar’s army-written constitution.
The EU Foreign Ministers Council will discuss Myanmar on Oct 16, although officials do not expect any move on sanctions that soon.
Danish minister for development cooperation, Ulla Tornaes, told Reuters that Copenhagen had been working to get the crisis on the agenda, “with the wish to put further pressure on the military”.
Two US officials with knowledge of the Trump administration’s Myanmar deliberations said targeted sanctions against commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and several other generals, as well as leaders of ethnic Rakhine militias accused of torching Rohingya villages, are under consideration.
Such sanctions – if decided on – would likely entail US asset freezes, bans on travel to the United States, prohibitions against Americans doing business with them and other unspecified penalties.
Washington was moving cautiously as it consulted with governments in Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia, the US officials said.
A senior Yangon-based European diplomat also said Western countries were coordinating their response to the crisis and were in agreement that it was the military, and specifically the commanderin-chief, who needed to be targeted in any punitive action. – Reuters