Myanmar under fresh pressure after new US sanctions

YANGON, Saturday (AFP) - Military-run Myanmar was under renewed pressure today after the United States announced a new round of sanctions following the junta's bloody crackdown on dissent here. US President George W. Bush's new penalties targeted the country's military leaders late Friday and also urged China and India, Myanmar's neighbours and main allies, to step up pressure on the military government.

Vendors chat with customers at a morning market in Bagan, Myanmar. The U.N. agency in charge of fighting hunger issued a plea for the world not to neglect providing food aid to the people of Myanmar, even as countries step up sanctions against its ruling junta for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. (AP)

It is the second time in four weeks that the United States has increased sanctions on the junta following the regime's clampdown on protests. State media in Yangon has yet to speak about the latest US action, while detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), also declined to comment on the move.

However, a Yangon-based diplomat voiced scepticism over the impact of the latest US sanctions designed to pressure the junta into ending its repression of pro-democracy activists.“The junta leaders may feel nervous because the United States was stepping up pressure very quickly,” said the diplomat, who declined to be named.

“But the impact of the latest US sanctions is limited at best. I don't think Myanmar's top leaders still hold vast assets in the United States,” he said. The military government has been under international pressure since it violently put down peaceful protests, led by Buddhist monks, in Yangon on September 26, killing at least 13 and detaining some 3,000 people.

In the wake of the violence, the United States ordered a freeze on the assets of 14 top officials, including Myanmar's junta leader General Than Shwe. On Friday, Washington further tightened sanctions by adding 11 more junta leaders, including 10 government ministers, to the existing list of 14 officials whose US assets have been frozen.