US ban on Myanmar army chief not enough

International Live: A US travel ban on Myanmar’s army chief and three other top officers for their role in orchestrating a crackdown against Rohingyas does not go far enough, a UN rights investigator said Thursday.

The sanctions announced Tuesday were the strongest censure yet from a Western power since the army launched its offensive against the stateless minority in August 2017 following attacks on police posts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said army chief Min Aung Hlaing and the other officers were responsible for human rights violations including extrajudicial killings during the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya when more than 740,000 were driven into Bangladesh.

The US, Canada and the European Union have previously passed sanctions against members of the powerful military, but stopped short of reaching the very top of leadership. The soldiers spent only a few months in prison — less time than two Reuters journalists who exposed the massacre and were behind bars for more than 500 days on state secrets charges.

Dhaka 18 July (campuslive24.com)//MIH

 

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