U.S. Imposes Sanctions on 52 People and Entities for Abuse and Corruptionbr John Sifton said that The fact that these listings were made today reflects the realitybr that despite many disagreements in Washington about the U.S. government’s role in promoting human rights, there is a bipartisan consensus the U.S. government can and should act to hold human rights abusers to account,br 21, 2017br WASHINGTON — The United States imposed sanctions on 52 people and entities Thursday for alleged human rights violations and corruption, a listbr that included Maung Maung Soe, a top Burmese general cited for an ongoing deadly crackdown on the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group.br Steven Mnuchin said that Today, the United States is taking a strong stand against human rights abusebr and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the U.S. financial system,br More than 620,000 refugees have flooded into neighboring Bangladesh since August, fleeing what Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson described as "ethnic cleansing." Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Soe is the first high-level Burmese military official to named in sanctions, an actionbr that the Treasury Department said grew out of credible evidence of his involvement in the crackdown.br The sanctions against Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Soe are among the first concrete actions by the Unitedbr States against a top Burmese official for the continuing murderous campaign against the Rohingya.br Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Soe was the chief of the Burmese Army’s Western Command during a crackdownbr that survivors say involved government soldiers stabbing babies, cutting off the heads of boys, gang-raping girls and burning entire families to death.