Myanmar's former colonial ruler the UK has announced "a new round" of sanctions targeting "suppliers to the Myanmar regime of military equipment and other material", including aviation fuel.
In a March 27 statement, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the newly-sanctioned entities "include a company and its director who supply the Myanmar Air Forces with aviation fuel and a second individual who is the director of a company which supplies restricted goods and technology through its business".
The military seized power in Myanmar in a February 2021 coup, returning the south-east Asian country, which is also known as Burma, to army rule. The country's generals have been in power for most of the 75 years since the independence was ceded by the British in 1948, and have long been criticised for large-scale human rights abuses and for running the country's resource-rich economy into the ground.
The latest UK sanctions are the fifteenth round to be introduced since the coup and are meant to "target enablers of air force bombing campaign against civilian population".
“These sanctions are well targeted, prioritising suppliers of aviation fuel and arms brokers, but a complete ban on British companies supplying aviation fuel to Burma is the only way to ensure no British companies are complicit in airstrikes against civilians,” said Anna Roberts, executive director of Burma Campaign UK.