Canada imposes targeted sanctions against Myanmar general

Canada has imposed "targeted sanctions" against a Myanmar general who led an army crackdown that forced over hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.

In a statement on Friday, Canada said the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland announced targeted sanctions against Major General Maung Maung Soe under the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.

"These sanctions are a result of the significant role played by this key military official in human rights violations against the Rohingya in Myanmar and in the violence and persecution that has forced more than 688,000 Rohingya to flee their country," the statement read.

“Canada will not stand by silently as crimes against humanity are committed against the Rohingya," the foreign minister said, expressing her country's firm determination to stand in solidarity with the Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities as they struggle to achieve their rights respected.

"Myanmar’s military and civilian leaders have an obligation to respect the human rights of all people and those responsible for these atrocities must be held to account,” Freeland pointed out.

Ottawa's sanctions include a freeze on assets the senior military official may have in Canada and a ban on dealings with him.

Also in December, the United States leveled sanctions against the Myanmar general on the charge of leading an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya Muslims.

The US Treasury said in a statement that Maung Soe "oversaw the military operation in Burma's Rakhine State responsible for widespread human rights abuse against Rohingya civilians."

The general is among a host of world figures blacklisted by the US over human rights and corruption allegations.

Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as its nationals even though they have been there for generations and refrains to give them citizenship.

In a new wave of violence, Myanmar’s forces have been attacking Rohingya Muslims and torching their villages in the state of Rakhine since October 2016. The attacks have seen a sharp rise since August 25, following a number of armed attacks on police and military posts in the troubled western state.

Since August, a military crackdown on the Rohingya has forced nearly 700,000 members of the one-million-plus-strong community to flee their homes in Rakhine and head to Bangladesh.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who was speaking by videoconference from Geneva, told a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, that Myanmar has failed to lay the groundwork for the safe return of Rohingya refugees who fled the country’s army crackdown six months ago.

"The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship," he added.

This comes as new aerial pictures of Rakhine state appear to show several bulldozed settlements of the persecuted Rohingya people, giving rise to concerns that Myanmar is wiping out history of the Muslim minority.

The haunting photos, recently posted on the Twitter account of the European Union ambassador to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt, show a scarred territory with large patches of leveled land.

SS