Irrawaddy-Nov 1
In coordinated action against the Myanmar military regime, the US has imposed sanctions on its main source of foreign revenue, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), while the UK and Canada have blacklisted individuals and entities to build on earlier sanctions and target the junta’s ability to buy weapons.
The new restrictions on the junta come after more than two years of renewed military rule in the country, where the regime has used air strikes, shelling, arbitrary arrests and killings against nationwide anti-regime resistance forces and civilians. As of Tuesday, the junta had killed 4,162 people since the coup, according to monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma. “Burma’s military regime has repeatedly harmed civilians in air strikes, suppressed pro-democracy movements, destroyed homes and infrastructure, and displaced millions of people” since the coup, said the US Treasury Department, using Myanmar’s former name. The most significant step in Tuesday’s coordinated action is the US sanction against MOGE, which the US said is “the biggest single source of foreign revenue for the military regime, providing hundreds of millions of dollars each year.” The action prohibits certain financial services by Americans to MOGE starting on Dec. 15, the Treasury said in a statement, in the first direct action against the state-owned enterprise. Rights groups and democracy activists at home and abroad have been calling for the sanction against MOGE since the junta began committing atrocities after the coup, pointing out that the regime uses revenue from selling oil and gas to buy weapons to crush resistance groups and civilians. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/myanmars-crisis-the-world/us-sanctions-myanmar-juntas-state-oil-and-gas-company.html
