Kuala Lumpur | The United States wants to find new ways to increase “pressure” on the Burmese junta because the situation has only “worsened” since the military coup, despite the sanctions already imposed, said Wednesday the head of American diplomacy.
“Ten months have passed since the military coup, and the crisis is only getting worse,” Antony Blinken admitted at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, in response to a question about the apparent inadequacy of US sanctions.
“It will be very important, in the weeks and months to come, to seek additional measures and acts that we can take, individually, collectively, to put pressure on the regime so that the country finds a democratic trajectory”, he added. he added, without specifying the nature of any new sanctions.
The Secretary of State, on a regional tour, called for the “implementation” of the “five-point consensus”, that is to say the roadmap drawn up in April by the Association of Asian Nations South East (Asean), of which Burma is a member, to help restore dialogue and facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid in the country in crisis.
Antony Blinken also said that the United States was studying “very actively at this very moment” the nature of the crimes alleged against the military against Rohingya Muslims in Burma, to determine “whether they constitute genocide”.