The Honourable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
May 4th, 2022
626 Myanmar & International Civil Society Organizations and over 220, 000 people call on the US to sanction Myanmar’s oil and gas revenues and stop the bankrolling of the genocidal military junta
On May 12-13, President Biden and ASEAN leaders will meet in Washington, DC and discuss the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. One year after the Myanmar military agreed to ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus, it has continued waging violence against the people of Myanmar, brutal crackdown on the people’s movement in defence of democracy and has consistently blocked humanitarian assistance that is urgently needed by millions of people across the country while attacking humanitarian and medical workers. ASEAN itself has made no progress on implementing its Five Point Consensus, which, though well-intentioned when first made, has degraded into mere talking points with no underlying substance or legitimacy.
The Biden Administration must move forward without relying on ASEAN to take the lead. Stopping the humanitarian crisis requires ensuring that the military does not have the resources necessary to perpetuate or scale up its attacks on the people of Myanmar.