• Burmese
Sunday, July 13, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
25 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

United States Urged to Renew Burma Sanctions

Brandon Tensley by Brandon Tensley
May 10, 2016
in Burma
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0 0
A A
United States Urged to Renew Burma Sanctions

US President Barack Obama and NLD chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi after their meeting at her residence in Rangoon on Nov. 14

5.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

US President Barack Obama should renew the country’s sanctions on Burma in light of ongoing abuses against minority groups, two international human rights groups said on Monday.

“While some clamber for normalized US relations with Burma, international crimes against minorities persist and the unreformed military maintains significant political power,” Tom Andrews, a former US congressman and president of the Washington-based group United to End Genocide, said in a joint press release with Fortify Rights, which is based in Bangkok.

In a new 34-page report—“Supporting Human Rights in Myanmar: Why the US Should Maintain Existing Sanctions Authority”—the two advocacy organizations drew particular attention to Burma’s continued persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, saying that “more than 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims [are still confined] to more than 40 squalid internment camps in [Arakan] State, while another one million Muslims in the country face severe restrictions, particularly on freedom of movement.”

RelatedPosts

Myanmar People Skeptical of Junta’s Promises of Election, Peace

Myanmar People Skeptical of Junta’s Promises of Election, Peace

July 7, 2025
1k
Paranoid Junta Turns to Foreign Expertise After 4 Years of Chaos; and More

Paranoid Junta Turns to Foreign Expertise After 4 Years of Chaos; and More

May 10, 2025
1.6k
Myanmar Junta Boss Returns to China’s Embrace After Russia Trip

Myanmar Junta Boss Returns to China’s Embrace After Russia Trip

March 12, 2025
5.4k

The report, based on 43 interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of human rights violations and with officials from the United Nations as well as “others” in Rangoon Division and Arakan and Kachin states, expressed concern over the Burma Army’s continued abuse, torture and killing of civilians in conflicts that continue to flare in the north. It also criticized the often destructive impacts of Burma’s lucrative jade trade, centered in Kachin State, which reportedly generated approximately US$31 billion in 2014.

A US ban on jade imports would also be lifted later this month if existing sanctions are not renewed.

Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide want US sanctions to hold fast for at least another year to prevent backsliding on Burma’s much-lauded reforms of the last several years.

“The current sanctions regime is deliberately limited and creates incentives for human rights abusers to clean up their act,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “These measures are sensible and should remain in place. Known human rights abusers shouldn’t profit from improved bilateral relations.”

The United States first imposed sanctions on Burma in 1997, when the former pariah state was still firmly under the military’s thumb. It was not until 2011 that the United States made moves toward restoring diplomatic ties with Burma, after former President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government came to power. While this eased broad economic sanctions affecting many sectors, scores of influential Burmese businesses and individuals remain “blacklisted.”

The human rights groups appeared largely to be hoping to coax actors within the military to “clean up their act” in pushing for renewed sanctions—such as by ending “violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law” by the Burma Army, and holding its personnel to account, regardless of rank—but the civilian National League for Democracy (NLD) government was also offered recommendations on improving Burma’s human rights record.

For instance, the report called for the new government to “end all discrimination in law, policy and practice against ethnic and religious minorities, including Rohingya Muslims and Kachin Christian minorities,” referring by name to the 1982 Citizenship Law that has effectively withheld citizenship from most of the country’s Rohingya, who were also excluded from Burma’s otherwise widely praised November election.

“President Obama should renew the sanctions authority without delay and make clear that promoting human rights in [Burma] will remain a priority in US foreign policy,” Andrews said in the press statement.

Obama has until May 20 to renew existing sanctions or allow them to expire.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: A_FactivaConflictForeign RelationsMore
Brandon Tensley

Brandon Tensley

Similar Picks:

Myanmar Junta Counteroffensives Failing Across Country: Analysts
Analysis

Myanmar Junta Counteroffensives Failing Across Country: Analysts

by Hein Htoo Zan
September 20, 2024
16.8k

Three major operations to retake territory from ethnic armies and their allies are being hampered by troop shortages, experts say.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Boss Returns to China’s Embrace After Russia Trip
Myanmar-China Watch

Myanmar Junta Boss Returns to China’s Embrace After Russia Trip

by The Irrawaddy
March 12, 2025
5.4k

Min Aung Hlaing hosts Chinese envoy for talks on Beijing’s Shan intervention and support for regime’s planned poll.   

Read moreDetails
Rakhine War: Dozens More Defeated Myanmar Junta Troops Flee to Bangladesh
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Rakhine War: Dozens More Defeated Myanmar Junta Troops Flee to Bangladesh

by Muktadir Rashid  
June 13, 2024
5.3k

Latest exodus from battle with Arakan Army comes just days after Dhaka repatriated 134 regime runaways. 

Read moreDetails
India Curries Favor; Junta Boss Showers Titles – Hail ‘King Putin’; and More
Junta Watch

India Curries Favor; Junta Boss Showers Titles – Hail ‘King Putin’; and More

by The Irrawaddy
March 8, 2025
4.2k

Also this week, the regime chief strengthened ties with Russia and Belarus during a goodwill tour of his key allies.

Read moreDetails
Blaming Ex-Dictator for Blackouts; Leading Tatmadaw’s Historic Humiliation; and More
Junta Watch

Blaming Ex-Dictator for Blackouts; Leading Tatmadaw’s Historic Humiliation; and More

by The Irrawaddy
January 18, 2025
3.5k

Also this week, the Air Force chief urged escalation of a campaign that has killed over 1,000 civilians, and the...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar’s Dictator Extends Emergency Rule Again, Citing Election Preparations
Politics

Myanmar’s Dictator Extends Emergency Rule Again, Citing Election Preparations

by The Irrawaddy
July 31, 2024
3.2k

Coup-maker Min Aung Hlaing says he needs another six months to impose stability and security, and compile accurate voter lists,...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Aung Kyaw Oo: ‘Without a Power Station in Yangon

Aung Kyaw Oo: ‘Without a Power Station in Yangon, We Can Never Have a Stable Power Supply.’

NLD Faces Daunting Task in Reforming Ruined Universities

NLD Faces Daunting Task in Reforming Ruined Universities

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

3 days ago
1.1k
Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

4 days ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Kill 25 on Friday

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parading Comedians and Machines for Election Circus; Rousing the Military Vote; and More

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.