The choice got here after the nation’s navy chief despatched a letter to Trump praising his ‘robust management’.
The United Nations’s high skilled on Myanmar has sharply criticised the US for lifting sanctions on allies of the nation’s governing navy regime, warning the transfer is a “main step backward”.
Tom Andrews, the UN particular rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, on Wednesday known as the choice “stunning”. The US quietly eliminated sanctions on 5 people and corporations allegedly tied to the regime’s arms commerce on July 24.
“This can be a main step backward for worldwide efforts to save lots of lives by limiting the murderous junta’s entry to weapons,” Andrews mentioned in a press release. “It’s unconscionable to undermine these efforts by rolling again sanctions on Myanmar arms sellers and junta cronies.”
The transfer has drawn criticism amid an ongoing civil conflict in Myanmar, the place the navy, led by Senior Basic Min Aung Hlaing, seized energy in a 2021 coup that overthrew the federal government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Andrews mentioned the businesses faraway from the sanctions checklist had been implicated in brokering weapons and supplies for the regime’s navy operations.
“What makes this motion much more appalling is that sanctions in opposition to the junta are proving to be efficient,” Andrews added, pointing to knowledge exhibiting a greater than 30 p.c decline in Myanmar’s imported navy tools from 2023 to 2024, which he attributed partially to US-led sanctions.
The transfer comes regardless of US President Trump signing a discover in February extending the chief order underpinning Myanmar-related sanctions, saying the 2021 coup “continues to pose an uncommon and extraordinary menace” to US nationwide safety.
And in a June assertion to the UN, the US consultant accused the navy regime of bombing civilians and conscripting Rohingya to battle on its behalf.
However the resolution to ease sanctions got here two weeks after Myanmar’s navy chief despatched a glowing letter of reward to US President Donald Trump. Within the letter, the overall recommended Trump’s “robust management” and praised his administration for defunding US-backed media shops vital of the regime.
A senior official from Trump’s administration mentioned the sanctions resolution was unrelated to the letter.
However critics say the timing raises critical considerations. John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, known as the transfer “extraordinarily worrying” and warned that it “suggests a significant shift is underway in US coverage, which had centered on punitive motion in opposition to Myanmar’s navy regime”.
Andrews urged the Trump administration to reverse course. “Quite than eradicating sanctions, the US ought to be extending them to incorporate Myanmar Financial Financial institution, the important thing military-controlled monetary establishment that it depends on to pay for imported navy tools.”
“This can be a harmful and disturbing pattern,” he added. “I urge the Trump administration to face with the individuals of Myanmar and rethink its resolution to make it simpler for the navy junta to assault them with subtle weapons of conflict. It’s actually a matter of life and dying.”