| schema:articleBody
| - Britain and the United States on Thursday put sanctions on a conglomerate owned by Myanmar's military, as they seek to ramp up the response to last month's coup. "Today's sanctions target the military's financial interests to help drain the sources of finance for their campaigns of repression against civilians," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, outlining the measures against Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). Washington announced shortly afterwards it was also imposing sanctions on MEHL and the Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC). The Myanmar military "controls significant segments of the country's economy through these holding firms", said a treasury department statement. The companies dominate many key sectors of the economy, including trading, natural resources, alcohol, cigarettes, and consumer goods. "These sanctions specifically target the economic resources of Burma's military regime, which is responsible for the overthrow of Burma's democratically elected government and the ongoing repression of the Burmese people," said the US statement. "These sanctions are not directed at the people of Burma," it said, using a former name for Myanmar. As a result of the order, all property of the groups that is in the United States is blocked. "The United States stands with the people of Burma and urges a return to its democratically elected government," said Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control Andrea Gacki. "By designating MEC and MEHL, Treasury is targeting the Burmese military's control of significant segments of the Burmese economy." Britain said the sanctions came in response to evidence that the MEHL contributed funds to support the country's armed forces "in their campaign on ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in 2017". Nine members of the junta were sanctioned last month over accusations they were directly responsible for rights violations committed by the police and military. But having run the country for decades under crippling embargoes before overseeing a transition to civilian government, the military "will be prepared to do so again", Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey recently told AFP. "Policymakers must resist the urge to impose progressively harsher measures without clear-headed cost-benefit analysis," he said. "Don't inflict harm on Myanmar people for the sins of their rulers." Through the two highly secretive military-controlled behemoths, at least 133 companies in the country are wholly or partially overseen by generals, according to a report by Justice For Myanmar (JFM). Much of the lucrative -- and largely unregulated -- jade and ruby trade is controlled by military-owned businesses. MEHL has partnerships with companies in China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, among others. It has enriched its shareholders in Myanmar, who -- according to the conglomerate's government filings -- are all current or retired military officials. Between 1990 and 2011, some $18 billion was paid out to them, according to an Amnesty International report in September 2020. In the wake of the coup, the military has regained control of state companies. It now oversees the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise -- which has partnerships with France's Total and the US's Chevron -- and is a hugely important asset reportedly netting nearly a billion dollars a year from natural gas sales. jwp/csp/jxb
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)