Responding to Myanmar’s Junta: An Alternative to Sanctions and Boycotts
Coup leader Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing participates in the Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw in March. / Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services’ Office
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By Bertil Lintner 11 May 2021
It has long been argued that sanctions against rogue regimes such as Myanmar’s military dictatorships are ineffectual and may hurt ordinary people more than those responsible for the acts that made outside powers take action against them. That would also apply for so-called “smart sanctions”, which in the case of Myanmar would mean freezing the generals’ non-existent foreign bank accounts or barring entry to Western nations they have no intention of traveling to. And any attempt to bring the generals to face charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are bound to fail because China and Russia would block necessary UN Security Council resolutions for the latter to enforce any verdict the court may pass and Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome statute which created the former.