Britain on Friday announced sanctions targeting 30 people around the world who it described as “corrupt political figures, human rights violators and perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence”.
It said the sanctions were coordinated with international partners to mark International Anti-Corruption Day and Global Human Rights Day and included individuals involved in activities including the torture of prisoners and the mobilization of troops to rape civilians.
“Today, our sanctions go further to expose those behind the heinous violations of our most fundamental rights,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
They included targets from 11 countries, including:
– 10 Iranian officials connected to Iran’s judicial and prison systems
– figures involved in the Myanmar military junta
– Russian Colonel Ramil Rakhmatulovich Ibatullin for his role as the commander of the 90th Tank Division
– Mali’s Katiba Macina group, also known as the Macina Liberation Front, over what Britain said was links to sexual violence
– Officials in South Sudan over what Britain said were links to sexual violence.
The military seized power in a coup in Myanmar last year. Rights activists say the junta is now regularly using the death penalty as a “political tool”.
More than 16,500 people have been arrested and more than 13,000 of them remain in detention since the coup, according to a human rights organization that documents violations by the Myanmar military.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES