Press TV:
May 03, 2013
The United States
has eased another set of sanctions against Myanmar despite the ongoing
persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community.
The Obama
administration made the announcement on Thursday, calling for an ease of
restrictions on many of Myanmar’s military rulers, their business partners and
immediate families.
Last year,
Washington lifted a set of sanctions against Myanmar that limited trade between
the two countries, including removing Myanmar’s President Thein Sein from the
list of banned officials.
“Since 2011, the
civilian-led Government of Burma has takenimportant steps toward significant
social, political, and economic reform that demonstrate substantial progress on
areas of concern,” the US Department of State said.
Myanmar’s
government has been repeatedly criticized for failing to protect the Rohingyas.
Recently, hundreds
of Buddhist extremists armed with bricks stormed shops and homes of Muslims in
the western village of Okkan.
In March, more than
40 people were killed and a number of mosques and homes of Muslims were burned
in central Myanmar, indicating a rise in the persecution of Muslims.
The Muslim minority
of Rohingyas in Myanmar accounts for about five percent of the country’s
population of nearly 60 million. The persecuted minority has faced torture,
neglect, and repression since the country achieved independence in 1948.
The UN Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said on March 28
that he had received reports that Myanmar’s soldiers and police sometimes stood
by “while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes” by
well-organized Buddhist mobs in the central city of Meiktila.
Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch have called on Myanmar’s government to
address the plight of the Rohingya Muslim population and to protect the
community against extremists.
In April, the
European Union also lifted most of its sanctions against Myanmar, a move
criticized by Human Rights Watch.
Comments