London/Yangon — BHRN strongly welcomes the announcement by US President Joseph Biden that he had issued an executive order sanctioning the leaders of the military coup in Burma, their business interests, and some of their family members. Along with this, President Biden announced that the Burmese military would be blocked from accessing $1 billion of Burmese assets in the US. Biden called for the release of all detained politicians and activists and signaled that more actions against the junta were to come in light of their crackdown on peaceful protests. These measures are a welcome and necessary response to the military’s coup in Burma and BHRN hopes more action will be forthcoming.

“President Biden’s sanctions on the Burmese General and their business interests are an important step forward to helping bring a true democracy to Burma. At this moment it is important that the US also hears the demands of the protesters and addresses the underlying issues that allowed for the military to seize control in the first place. Burma’s 2008 constitution prevented Burma from ever being truly democratic and allowed the military to retain its power during a quasi-civilian government. It must be abolished, and the US must include this in their demands,” said BHRN’s Executive Director, Kyaw Win.

BHRN is greatly encouraged by President Biden’s announcement and hopes that further actions will include a number of broad efforts to help Burma progress to a better democracy. BHRN asks the US to offer its support to the protesters and the organizations behind them, to expand sanctions against the Military leadership, their businesses, and their cronies, and to include the demands of protesters with their own demands on the Burmese military. The military must not be allowed to relinquish some power now while enabling a path to seize it again in the future.