Source: Reuters

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union imposed sanctions on seven senior military officials from Myanmar on Monday, including the general in charge of an operation accused of driving nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

 

FILE PHOTO: A Rohingya refugee is seen in Balukhali refugee camp at dawn near Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

The seven face asset freezes and are banned from traveling to the EU, after the bloc extended an arms embargo and prohibited any training of, or cooperation with Myanmar’s armed forces.

The sanctions, first reported by Reuters in April, also mark a shift in diplomacy by the EU, which suspended its restrictive measures on the Southeast Asian country in 2012 to support its partial shift to democratic governance in recent years.

But the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, which the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing by the military, has soured relations. Yangon rejects all accusations of wrongdoing.