Arakan News Agency
Members of the US Congress on Friday proposed new sanctions against the Myanmar military, in a move that is the strongest for Washington, to press the Southeast Asian country to stop mistreating the Muslim minority of Rohingya.
Republicans and Democrats have submitted a bill that would reduce coordination and assistance for the Myanmar military and asked the White House to identify the Myanmar senior officials from entering into the United States could be banned.
A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, including senior United States Senator from Arizona John McCain, on Thursday introduced a bill calling for renewed trade restrictions on Myanmar, including re-imposing a ban on the import of some precious stones.
“Our law holds senior officers responsible for the slaughter and displacement of innocent men, women and children in Burma,” McCain said in a statement, explaining that the United States will not stand by in front of these atrocities.
The bill comes at a time when US President Donald Trump is on a Asian tour, during which he will attend a summit of Southeast Asian nations including Myanmar.
The United States, which condemned the bloody violence that led to the flight of more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to neighboring Bangladesh, has taken charge at Myanmar military officers and not the Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Legislators are asking the Myanmar military to secure safe return of the refugees who fled the northern state of Arakan, where the United Nations has accused the army of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The fate of this law may partly depend on the position of the Republican majority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, a friend and ally of Suu Kyi long ago.
In a phone call in September, Suu Kyi assured McConnell that she was working to help the Rohingya Muslims.
Suu Kyi has faced criticism from the international community for failing to use her moral influence to defend Rohingya. On Thursday she made her first visit to Arakan.
McConnell’s office said the Republican leader was studying the penal code. As the leader of the Senate, he decides which bill is put to the vote.
