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US imposes sanctions on Myanmar junta’s arms dealers

The United States has imposed sanctions on three Myanmar nationals for their role in arms brokering for the country’s coup regime, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Thursday.

The three targeted individuals are businessman Aung Moe Myint and two of his associates—his brother Hlaing Moe Myint and their partner Myo Thitsar—who are accused of procuring Russian-made weapons in Belarus for the Myanmar junta.

According to a statement by the US Treasury Department, Aung Moe Myint’s company, Dynasty International, has also been sanctioned for its role in facilitating arms deals.

“The sanctions announced today target those who profit from the oppressive actions of the regime by operating in the defense sectors of Burma’s economy and providing arms and other material support to Burma’s military,” said the statement, referring to Myanmar by its former name.

Since seizing power in a coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military has killed at least 2,300 civilians and detained thousands more, of whom at least 12,000 remain behind bars.

Senior leaders of the ousted civilian government, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have also been jailed on trumped-up charges of election-rigging and other alleged offences.

The sanctions announced on Thursday freeze any assets held by the targeted individuals in the US and bars Americans from dealing with them.

In his statement, Blinken cited the junta’s execution of four activists in July and an aerial assault on a village school in Sagaing Region that left at least seven children dead last month as examples of the regime’s ongoing and escalating atrocities.

He also linked the latest sanctions to the Myanmar regime’s growing ties to Russia, a country that has been widely condemned in the West for its war in Ukraine.

“We will continue to use our sanctions authorities to target those in Burma and elsewhere supporting Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russia and Belarus’ facilitation of the Burmese regime’s violence against its own people,” said Blinken.

Aung Moe Myint and his company were already the target of sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom and Canada in March.

Aung Moe Myint, right, meets with the deputy foreign minister of Belarus, Nikolai Borisevich, in Minsk in June 2021 (Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

According to activist group Justice For Myanmar, Aung Moe Myint is recognised by the government of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko as an honorary consul to the country, which he has visited on numerous occasions to discuss “cooperation” between the two Russian-backed regimes.

Belarus was the only country to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution calling on UN members to “prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar” in June of last year.

In addition, the State Department also imposed travel restrictions on former police chief and deputy home affairs minister Than Hlaing for his involvement in “gross violations of human rights, namely the extrajudicial killing of peaceful protestors” following last year’s coup.

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