Umamageswari Maruthappan
Joe Biden, President of the United States, issued an executive order against the insurrections of Myanmar’s Military Generals. The order penalizes the acts of the Military by preventing it to have access to the assets in the US.
“The US government is taking steps to prevent the generals from improperly having access to the $1 billion in Burmese government funds held in the United States,” Biden said, who addressed, for the first time, on the Myanmar’s political crisis at the White House on 11th February 2021.
However, Biden assured that support for healthcare, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly will be maintained.
Besides freezing the US assets for utilizations, the President has also urged the Military Leaders to release Leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other political members of the National League for Democracy (NLD). These big shots were detained by the Military forces on 1st February 2021 thereby refraining the assembly of the New Parliament.
Though the Military Generals advocated their conduct by citing the provisions of the Country’s Constitution and claiming irregularities in elections that led the NLD Party to sweep away its rivals, the US Government however stood by the NLD’s statement that the act was nothing but a “coup”.
President Joe further intimidated that more sanctions could follow. “The people of Burma are making their voices heard, and the world is watching. “We’ll be ready to impose additional measures and we’ll continue to work with our international partners to urge other nations to join us in these efforts,” said Biden while addressing Myanmar by its old name, Burma.
While the aftereffects of the US order is uncertain, it is clear that the Country’s Military Force is facing a heat wave at this time, given its steadily rising unpopularity and its recent unwelcomed attacks like the one against Muslim Rohingya minority.
Myanmar’s Military Generals led by Min Aung Hlaing began to resent on the elections in the Country that took place in November 2020. The NLD had won a majority of seats thereby defeating the Military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Their contentions was that the Elections was not fair and had irregularities which however, was denied by the Election Commission.
Nonetheless, the Armed Forces arrested the political leaders of NLD party and declared emergency for a year. This led the Generals to assume authority over the Country after almost a decade.
Following this rebel, the citizens of the country started protesting against the Army attacks by making large gatherings. They collectively demanded the release of Suu Kyi and restoration of their overthrown government.