Foes of Myanmar's military regime applaud new US sanctions, but want action to block gas revenues

BANGKOK (AP) — Opponents of Myanmar’s military government applauded fresh financial sanctions imposed by the United States on the Southeast Asian nation but called Thursday for further measures to pressure its ruling generals to restore peace and democracy.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday it was imposing the sanctions on Myanmar’s Defense Ministry and two state-owned banks, the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and the Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank.

The move freezes any assets of the sanctioned entities that are in the United States or controlled by a U.S. person. It also prohibits all transactions by U.S. persons or carried out within or transiting the United States that the targeted entities would benefit from. That would make it difficult to carry out transactions through financial institutions involving U.S. dollars.

The sanctions are the latest by the Biden administration against Myanmar’s military-installed government, after army overthrew the elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021.

The Treasury Department statement said the Defense Ministry since then has continued to import goods and material worth at least $1 billion, including from sanctioned entities in Russia.

The army’s 2021 takeover prompted widespread public protests whose violent suppression by security forces triggered an armed resistance that now spans much of the country, amounting to civil war. Security forces have been accused of carrying out large-scale human rights violation to try to crush all opposition.

“To support its brutal repression across Burma, the military regime has relied on foreign sources, including sanctioned Russian entities, to purchase and import arms, dual-use goods, equipment, and raw materials to manufacture weapons,” said...