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YANGON: The European Union has imposed sanctions on 11 people linked to last month’s military coup in Myanmar as acts of defiance against the military junta continue despite the regime’s violent and increasingly deadly pushback.
The sanctions marked the 27-nation bloc’s most significant response since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government on February 1. The individuals targeted included General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military.
At least 250 people have been killed so far in the crackdown on the protests, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group. Hundreds of demonstrators marched along a main road in the second largest city Mandalay before dawn, many of them doctors, nurses, students and other medical personnel wearing white coats, repeating a similar demonstration carried out the night before.
EU foreign ministers adopted the travel bans and asset freezes on the individuals at a meeting in Brussels. The EU has placed an arms embargo on Myanmar and it has targeted some senior military officials since 2018.
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters before the meeting that the crackdown “has reached an unbearable extent, which is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions”.
Among the individuals targeted are Min Aung Hlaing, Myint Swe, who has been acting president since the coup, and other senior military and administration staff. Stronger measures are expected soon as the bloc moves to take aim at the businesses run by the military.
EU diplomats said parts of the military’s conglomerates, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), are likely to be targeted, barring EU investors and banks from doing business with them.
The conglomerates are spread throughout the economy from mining and manufacturing to food and beverages to hotels, telecoms and banking.
A UN fact-finding mission in 2019 recommended sanctions against the two companies and their subsidiaries, saying they gave the army extra sources of revenue that could finance human rights violations.
The new sanctions follow a U.S. decision last month to target the military and its business interests. Britain last month froze the assets and placed travel bans on three generals over the coup.
Myanmar has been locked in crisis since the coup, with protesters taking to the streets daily and a campaign of civil disobedience unfolding.
