(Reuters) – The European Union is ready to impose new sanctions on Burma after a deadly army attack on a village, and calls for an international arms embargo on the country, the spokesperson said on Thursday of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“In the face of escalating violence in Burma, increased preventive international action is needed, including an arms embargo,” the representative said in a statement.
On December 24, around 30 people, including women and children, were killed and their bodies burned by the army in a village in conflict-torn Kayah state, aid agencies said.
Meanwhile, the Save the Children charity said two of its staff were killed in the attack.
“I condemn this serious incident and all the attacks against civilians across the country,” the UN Under-Secretary-General in charge of humanitarian affairs and the coordination of relief services said in a statement Monday.
The Burma Army said it shot dead an unknown number of “armed terrorists” belonging to the opposition armed forces in the village because they did not stop for military check.
Josep Borell said that “the EU is also ready to impose new sanctions against the military regime”.
Since the February coup, the EU has imposed targeted sanctions on the Burmese regime, its leaders and entities, including stopping its financial assistance and freezing it on any assistance that can be seen as legitimizing the military government.
“The appalling act of violence perpetrated by the military regime in Kayah State (…) underscores the urgent need to hold those responsible to account,” said Josep Borell.
(Report Francesco Guarascio; French version Dina Kartit, edited by Sophie Louet)
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