Biden says US will sanction Myanmar military leaders after coup, warns not to stop protests

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced new steps on Wednesday to pressure Burma's military leaders into relinquishing power and restoring democracy in that country.

Biden said his administration would block military generals in Myanmar, also known as Burma, from accessing $1 billion in government funds held in the United States. The president said he also approved an executive order that would pave the way for sanctions on the military leaders who directed the coup, along with their close family members and affiliated business interests.

"The military must relinquish power it seized and demonstrate respect for the will of the people of Burma," Biden said. He also warned the country's security forces against crushing the pro-democracy protests that have unfolded since the coup.

"The people of Burma are making their voices heard, and the world is watching," the president said. "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."

Civil servants have been risking their jobs to protest, and even some police have switched sides to oppose the coup. In a dramatic video shot Wednesday in a village in Kayah State in eastern Myanmar, 42 police declared allegiance to the ousted elected government and resisted the entreaties of a senior officer to return to duty. Local residents flocked to them to ward off their arrest.

In Naypyitaw and Mandalay on Tuesday, police sprayed water cannons and fired warning shots at protesters. In Naypyitaw, they shot rubber bullets and apparently live rounds, wounding a woman protester, according to witnesses and footage on social media. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Human Rights Watch cited a doctor at a Naypyitaw hospital as saying the woman was in critical condition. The doctor said the woman had a projectile lodged in her head, believed to be a bullet that had penetrated the back of the right ear, and had lost significant brain function.

Ned Price, the U.S. State Department's chief spokesman, said he could not elaborate on the asset freeze or the sanctions. He said the Biden administration would be detailing other policy steps soon.

Myanmar's military seized control of the government on Feb. 1 and detained the country’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, along with Myanmar President U Win Myint and others.

The coup came after an election in November that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. The main opposition party, the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, claimed the vote was marred by fraud. Myanmar's election commission rejected the allegations, but tensions between the two sides had been rising for weeks.

The military ruled for five decades after a 1962 coup and used deadly force to quash a massive 1988 uprising and a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks.

Earlier this month, the State Department declared the arrests a "coup" and called on the country's military leadership to release Suu Kyi and other detainees "immediately and unconditionally."

The U.N. Human Rights Council is to hold a special session on Friday to consider “the human rights implications of the crisis in Myanmar.”

More: Myanmar military coup: What it means for Aung San Suu Kyi, Joe Biden and democracy

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden: US will sanction Myanmar military leaders after coup