The United States is considering new measures to pressure the Myanmar junta to return to a “democratic trajectory”, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, as alarm grows over an escalating crackdown on dissent.
Myanmar has been in chaos since February when Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government was ousted by the military.
Speaking during a visit to Malaysia among several ASEAN states that have strongly criticized the coup, Blinken conceded that the “situation has not improved”.
“That is something that we are looking at,” he added, without saying what the measures might be.
Blinken also said the United States was looking “very actively” at whether the treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar might “constitute genocide”.
- ‘Alarming escalation’ –
They were responding to the reported killing of 11 villagers, including children.
The junta, locked in a bloody stalemate with militias fighting to overturn the coup, denied the claims.
ASEAN took the unprecedented step of banning junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from its October summit after the generals refused to let the bloc’s envoy meet Suu Kyi.
Its strongman premier Hun Sen plans to travel to the country for talks in January, becoming the first international leader to visit Myanmar since the coup.
The junta has justified the coup by alleging electoral fraud in last year’s poll, and Suu Kyi faces a raft of further charges that could see her jailed for decades if convicted.
