US lands Myanmar commander in chief with sanctions over Rohingya massacre
The United States on Tuesday barred Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other military leaders it said were behind the extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims, from entering into the United States.
The bans, which also covered Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, So Win and two other commanders and their families are the strongest the United States has taken in response to killings of minority Rohingyas in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The two other commanders are Brig.General Than Oo and Aung Aung.
In a statement, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said:
We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country.
Mike also said that a recent revelation that Min Aung Hlaing directed the release of soldiers declared guilty of extrajudicial killings at the village of Inn Din during the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in 2017 was “one egregious example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its senior leadership.”
According to Pompeo, “the Commander-in-Chief released these criminals after only months in prison, while the journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn Din were jailed for more than 500 days.”
Two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who exposed the Inn Din massacre were jailed for 16 months on charges of obtaining state secrets.
They were released in an amnesty on May 6.
The US made the announcement on the first day of an international ministerial conference on religious freedom hosted by Pompeo at the State Department. The conference had in attendance Rohingya representatives.
With this announcement, the United States is the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military,” Pompeo, who has been a strong advocate of religious freedom, ended .
