By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) – Washington designated Burma’s Defense Ministry and two regime-controlled financial institutions on Tuesday, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Burma’s Ministry of Defense and two regime-controlled financial institutions that facilitate much of the foreign currency exchange within Burma and enable transactions between the military regime and foreign markets, including for the purchase and import of arms and related materiel," it said.

Burma’s military regime has employed brutal tactics to consolidate power and repress the people of Burma following the military coup in 2021, and has increasingly deployed aerial attacks that have destroyed villages, schools, and medical facilities, it said.

"This campaign of violence has resulted in the death of more than 3,600 civilians, along with the destruction of tens of thousands of homes and other infrastructure, while also displacing nearly 1.5 million people," according to the statement.

To support its brutal repression, the military regime has relied on foreign sources, including sanctioned Russian entities, to purchase and import arms, dual-use goods, equipment, and raw materials to manufacture weapons. The regime and other designated state-owned entities have relied on state-owned financial institutions that act as the primary foreign currency exchanges in Burma to facilitate these transactions, it said.

“Burma’s military regime has leveraged state-run access to international markets to import weapons and materiel, including from sanctioned Russian entities, to continue its violence and oppression,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson.

The two designated entities, Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB) are state-owned financial institutions that function as foreign currency exchanges and enable the conversion of kyat to US dollars and the reverse, allowing state-owned entities to transact easily with foreign markets.

"Burma’s Ministry of Defense, MFTB, and MICB are being designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for being political subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities of the Government of Burma," according to US officials,