On Human Rights Day, the United States imposes sanctions on companies and officials in China, Myanmar and North Korea.
The United States on Friday imposed sweeping human rights-related sanctions on dozens of individuals and entities linked to China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh, and added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group to an investment blacklist.
Canada and the United Kingdom joined the United States in imposing sanctions related to human rights abuses in Myanmar, while Washington also imposed the first new sanctions on North Korea under the administration of President Joe Biden and targeted the entities. Myanmar military, among others, in action to commemorate Human Rights Day. .
“Our actions today, particularly those in partnership with the UK and Canada, send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse state power to inflict suffering and repression,” said the Under Secretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo, in a statement. statement.
On this #HumanRightsDay, we will appoint 12 officials for their involvement in serious human rights violations. As part of our commitment to putting human rights at the center of US foreign policy, we will continue to promote accountability for human rights violators.
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 10, 2021
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations and the Chinese, Myanmar and Bangladeshi embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The measures are the latest in a series of sanctions scheduled to coincide with Biden’s two-day Virtual Summit for Democracy, where he announced initiatives to strengthen democracy around the world and support for pro-democracy legislation in the United States.
Biden said Friday that the commitments made by some of the more than 100 world leaders at the summit would roll back the rise of autocracy around the world, fight corruption and promote human rights.
“This will help sow fertile ground for democracy to flourish around the world,” he said in a closing speech to the summit.
The Treasury on Friday added the Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime to a list of “companies of Chinese military-industrial complexes”, accusing it of having developed facial recognition programs that can determine the ethnicity of a target, with a particular focus on the identification of the Uyghur ethnic group.
As a result, the company will be subject to an investment ban for US investors. SenseTime is close to selling 1.5 billion shares in an initial public offering (IPO). Following news of the Treasury restrictions earlier this week, the company began discussing the fate of the planned $ 767 million offering with the Hong Kong stock exchange, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
UN experts and human rights groups estimate that more than a million people, mainly Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in the far western Xinjiang region. from China.
China denies the abuses in Xinjiang, but the US government and many human rights groups say Beijing is carrying out genocide there.
Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the adoption by @NU of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His message remains as important and clear today as ever: human rights belong to everyone, everywhere. pic.twitter.com/uixkmVYcHV
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 10, 2021 Myanmar, North Korea
The Treasury said it was imposing sanctions on two Myanmar military entities and one organization that provides reserves for the army. The Defense Industries Directorate, one of the attacked entities, manufactures weapons for the army and the police that have been used in a brutal crackdown on opponents of the February 1 military coup.
The Treasury also targeted four regional top ministers, including Myo Swe Win, who heads the board’s administration in the Bago region, where the Treasury said at least 82 people died in a single day in April.
Canada imposed sanctions against four entities affiliated with Myanmar’s military government, while the United Kingdom imposed new sanctions against the military.
Myanmar plunged into crisis when the army toppled leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her government on February 1, sparking daily protests in towns and cities and fighting in border areas between the army and ethnic minority insurgents.
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Junta forces seeking to crush the opposition have killed more than 1,300 people, according to the monitoring group of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Campaign group Global Witness said in a statement that the measures fell short of targeting Myanmar’s natural gas industry, a key source of foreign exchange for the junta, and were “unlikely to materially impact the results of the military junta.” .
The Treasury also blacklisted the North Korean Central Prosecutor’s Office, along with former Minister of Social Security and recently appointed Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Ri Yong Gil, as well as a Russian university to facilitate the export of workers. from North Korea.
North Korea has long sought the lifting of US and international sanctions on its weapons programs and has denounced US criticism of its human rights record as evidence of a hostile policy against it.
The Biden administration has repeatedly asked North Korea to enter into a dialogue about its nuclear and missile programs, to no avail.
On Friday, the US State Department also banned 12 people from traveling to the United States, including officials from China, Belarus and Sri Lanka.
(REUTERS)
