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Singaporean,
10 firms under US Myanmar sanctions
AFP
26
Feb
08
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJ45EeCo4AI1_grlDJgwgB1TNi2g
A
Singaporean citizen and 10 of her companies have been targeted
under fresh US sanctions aimed at the Myanmar junta, adding to a
list of city-state firms hit by US sanctions.
Cecilia Ng
is the wife of Steven Law, whose father Lo Hsing Han is "known
as the 'Godfather of Heroin'," according to the US Treasury
Department.
The department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) named the three individuals on Monday under
additional economic sanctions against supporters of Myanmar's
military regime, which the US accuses of grave human rights
abuses.
The OFAC notice says Ng, born in 1958, is a
Singaporean citizen who owns 10 companies including Golden Aaron
Pte Ltd.
State media in Myanmar reported in December 2004
that Singapore's Golden Aaron Pte Ltd was part of a consortium
that signed an oil and natural gas exploration contract with
military-ruled Myanmar.
OFAC listed Ng's other companies
as: G A Ardmore Pte Ltd, G A Capital Pte Ltd, G A Foodstuffs Pte
Ltd, G A Land Pte Ltd, G A Resort Pte Ltd, G A Sentosa Pte Ltd, G
A Treasure Pte Ltd, G A Whitehouse Pte Ltd, and S H Ng Trading
Pte Ltd.
The Treasury Department accused Law and Lo Hsing
Han of a history of involvement in illicit activities.
"Lo
Hsing Han, known as the 'Godfather of Heroin,' has been one of
the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the early
1970s," it said.
"Steven Law joined his father's
drug empire in the 1990s and has since become one of the
wealthiest individuals in Burma."
Ng could not be
immediately contacted for comment on the allegations.
Singapore
strongly denies allegations that it allows banks based here to
keep illicit funds on behalf of Myanmar's secretive
generals.
The city-state led regional criticism of the
junta's deadly September crackdown on Buddhist-led protests, but
rights activists accused it of not taking economic action against
the regime.
The US action freezes any assets the
individuals and firms have under US jurisdiction and bars
Americans from conducting business with them at the risk of heavy
fines and prison sentences.
U.S.
Treasury slaps sanctions on Asia World Co Ltd & 10
Singapore-based companies
David
Lawder
Reuters
26 Feb
08
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2523991220080225
The
Bush administration, tightening pressure on Myanmar over human
rights abuses, on Monday announced more economic sanctions
against businesses and individuals linked to the country's
military leaders.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it
was banning Americans from doing business with Asia World Co Ltd,
a Myanmar company controlled by Steven Law and his father, Lo
Hsing Han, who it said was a big figure in the international
heroin trade.
The Treasury described both men as
"financial operatives" of the Myanmar regime.
It
was the fourth set of sanctions under an executive order issued
last year in response to Myanmar's military crackdown against
protesters and included a freeze on any assets the firms and
individuals may have under U.S. Jurisdiction.
Myanmar's
junta in September crushed the biggest pro-democracy protests in
nearly 20 years, killing at least 20 people, according to Human
Rights Watch. Western governments say the toll may be much
higher.
"The situation in Burma remains deplorable,"
U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement, and called for
concerted international pressure on Myanmar to achieve a "genuine
transition to democracy."
"The regime has
rejected calls from its own people and the international
community to begin a genuine dialogue with the opposition and
ethnic minority groups. Arrests and secret trials of peaceful
political activists continue," Bush said.
The
Treasury said Law and his father, Lo, had a history of illicit
activities that supported the Myanmar junta. It called Lo as the
"Godfather of Heroin" who has been one of the world's
top traffickers of the drug since the early 1970s.
In
1992, Lo founded Asia World Co Ltd. a company that has received
numerous lucrative government concessions, including construction
of ports, highways and government facilities, the Treasury
said.
Law now serves as managing director of the company,
and the sanctions were extended to his wife, Cecelia Ng. The
Treasury also blacklisted 10 Singapore-based companies owned by
Ng, including property firm Golden Aaron Pte Ltd.
The
Treasury designated two hotel chains owned by Myanmar tycoon Tay
Za, who was blacklisted in an earlier round of financial
sanctions, the Aureum Palace Hotels and Resorts and Myanmar
Treasure Resorts.
The sanctions have drawn a less than
enthusiastic public reaction from Myanmar's southeast Asian
neighbors, including Singapore, a key financial center in the
region. Impoverished Laos and Cambodia have denounced the U.S.
Moves.
Nonetheless, Adam Szubin director of the Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets control, said some governments in the
region were quietly cooperating.
"It's incumbent on
financial institutions and governments to take steps to keep
dirty money out of their banks and their financial systems. We
see indeed financial institutions and governments taking those
steps, sometimes not in the public view," Szubin told
reporters.
Reporting
by David Lawder; Editing by David Storey
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