The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on four Myanmar military and police commanders and two army units, accusing them of “ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims and widespread human rights abuses across the Southeast Asian nation, Reuters reports. The United States had previously penalized only one Burmese commander for the violence, which has caused 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh and other parts of Asia. The European Union and Canada had hit seven officials with sanctions, according to The New York Times. A former high-ranking Myanmar army official told The Washington Post that the sanctions would not affect the military. Instead, such punitive actions would harden its position and drive the country closer to China.