The European Union and Canada slapped on Monday sanctions against a number of officials from Myanmar over the authorities’ brutal persecution of the Muslim Rohingya.
The EU said in a statement Monday that seven officials — from the army, border guard and police — face an asset freeze and travel ban.
They said that their human rights violations included killing, sexual violence and the burning of Rohingya homes and buildings.
"Today, the European Union and Canada have announced sanctions against some of the key military leaders who were involved in atrocities and human rights violations in Rakhine State, including sexual and gender-based violence," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.
"Canada and the international community cannot be silent. This is ethnic cleansing. These are crimes against humanity," she said.
Earlier this year, the EU toughened an embargo blocking the provision of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression.
Myanmar's military has forced some 700,000 Rohingya out of Rakhine and across the border to Bangladesh since August 2017, in a brutal crackdown which UN officials say amounts to ethnic cleansing of the minority.
After a period of thawing relations with Myanmar after the country's military junta ceded power in 2011, the Rohingya crisis has seen the EU and Canada take a harder line -- with blacklisting the officials the toughest step taken so far by Brussels and Ottawa.
