BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY AND NEW ACTIONS
Via Teleconference
10:04 A.M. EST
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good morning. Thank you for joining this background briefing on International Human Rights Day and new actions. This call is embargoed until its conclusion, and is attributable, on background, to senior administration officials.
Today we have [senior administration officials]. Each of our senior officials will give brief remarks, and then we will go into Q&A.
With that, I will turn it over to our first senior administration official.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good morning, and thank you for joining us today on International Human Rights Day. There is a common misconception that serious human rights abuse is only prevalent in certain parts of the world. It is not. It is a global problem. Serious human rights abuse undermines the rule of law and leads to the death of innocent civilians, ethnic cleansing, refugee crises, sexual violence, political instability, the perpetuation of conflict, and the deprivation of fundamental human rights.
The United States is the world leader in combatting human rights abuse and human rights violators. As such, the United States is committed to upholding human rights for all people and will hold human rights abusers accountable wherever they are. Today, we are taking action against perpetrators and enablers of serious human rights abuse in Burma, Pakistan, Libya, Slovakia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our action today focuses on those who have killed or ordered the killing of innocents who stood up for human rights, including journalists, opposition members, and human rights lawyers. Specifically, our targets include:
- leaders of the Burmese military responsible for the murder of Rohingya villagers and other religious and ethnic minorities
- a senior superintendent of police in Pakistan who repeatedly committed extrajudicial killings of civilians
- a military commander who has ordered and carried out mass executions of unarmed detainees in Libya
- a Slovakian businessman who murdered a journalist for exposing his corruption
- five individuals responsible for the abduction and likely killing, in South Sudan, of two human rights activists in 2017
- and members of the Allied Democratic Forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- a group that uses rape, murder, and abduction of civilians as a weapon of war.
Treasury’s actions are designed to impose significant and tangible consequences on those who engage in, and profit from, serious human rights abuse. These actions encourage and support stability, the rule of law, and respect for human rights in the countries we will highlight today.
These designations are being taken pursuant to the Global Magnitsky sanctions program, which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption. Between 2017 and 2019, Treasury has designated over 700 persons with a nexus to corruption or human rights abuse under a variety of sanctions programs, over 190 of which have been pursuant to our Global Magnitsky authorities.
I would now like to turn the call over to [senior administration official] to talk more about a few of the designations Treasury took today.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you, and hello everyone.
First, I would like to focus on our designations with respect to Burma. Treasury is targeting members of the Burmese military, which has committed widespread, systematic, and brutal acts of violence against ethnic minority groups across Burma, including Rohingya villagers and groups in the Kachin and Shan States. We are designating four Burmese military commanders for their roles in brutal military operations that include the rape, execution of, and systematic violence against civilians.
The commanders targeted today include Min Aung Hlaing, who is the commander-in-chief of the Burmese security forces; Soe Win, who is the deputy commander-in-chief of the Burmese security forces; Than Oo, who is the leader of the 99th LID, and Aung Aung, a leader of the 33rd LID -- both of which were deployed to Rakhine State, where these divisions participated in brazen acts of human rights abuse, including the systemic rape of civilians.
These actions promote accountability for the Burmese commanders and shine a light on the responsibility they bear for these brutal operations.
Turning to Pakistan, Treasury is designating today Rao Anwar Khan, a senior superintendent of police in Pakistan. Anwar staged over 190 police encounters in the Malir District that led to the deaths of over 400 people, many of which were extrajudicial murders. Anwar was also in charge of a network of police and criminal thugs responsible for extortion, land-grabbing, narcotics, and murder.
In Libya, Treasury is designating Mahmud al-Warfalli for ordering mass executions of unarmed detainees as commander of the al-Saiqa Brigade, part of the Libyan National Army, currently conducting an offensive on Tripoli.
Since 2016, al-Warfalli has carried out or ordered the extrajudicial killings of 43 unarmed detainees in eight separate incidents. Many of these executions were filmed and published on social media.
Turning to Slovakia, Treasury is designating a prominent Slovak businessman, Marian Kocner, for his threats against Jan Kuciak, a journalist investigating his rampant corruption and Kocner's hiring of a hitman to murder Kuciak and Kuciak's fiancée, Martina Kusnirova.
Kocner threatened the kill Jan Kuciak, a reporter who wrote more than a dozen articles exposing Kocner's scheme to defraud the Slovak people of millions of euros through fraudulent tax returns, as well as his corrupt dealings and connections to Slovak police and prosecutors.
Kocner ultimately hired former Slovak Intelligence Service members to surveil Kuciak and hired a hitman that murdered Kuciak and his fiancée.
OFAC is also designating six entities owned or controlled by Kocner.
Turning to South Sudan, Treasury is designating five individuals responsible for the abduction and likely murder of two human rights activists in 2017.
We continue to see the South Sudanese government use extrajudicial killings as a means to silence dissent, limit freedom of speech and press, and enforce the political status quo.
The U.N. published a Panel of Experts report of 111 pages in April 2019, detailing the allegations involving those designated today. And yet we have not seen any indications that the South Sudanese government intends to hold any accountable or to take corrective measures.
More broadly, we're concerned that the same environment of impunity extends to South Sudan's peace process. South Sudanese leadership continue to drag their feet and extend the deadline for forming a national unity government, all while the people of South Sudan suffer economic hardship and violence.
The United States will work unilaterally and with the international partners to hold all those responsible for human rights abuse and corruption accountable, as well as to take action against those impeding South Sudan's peace process.
Lastly, focusing on DRC, Treasury is designating members of the Democratic Republic of Congo Allied Democratic Forces, which has repeatedly committed mass rape, killings, and abductions of civilians.
The ADF was designated by OFAC and the United Nations in 2014 for -- given its responsibility for targeting children in armed conflicts, including through killing, rape, abduction, and forced displacement. The ADF has continued to perpetuate widespread violence and innumerable human rights abuse through 2019.
Today, OFAC is designating a leader of the ADF, Musa Baluku, for his command responsibility in these human rights abuses, as well as five ADF commanders who have materially assisted the ADF through recruitment, logistics, admiration, financing, intelligence, and operations coordination.
In conclusion, today's action exposes those who perpetuate and profit from human rights abuses and cuts off their access to the U.S. financial system.
The Treasury action today has the following consequences: All property, and interests in property, of the individuals and entities designated today that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. And U.S. persons will be prohibited from dealing with them.
I'd like to turn it back to the moderator.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. Now I'll turn it over to [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. And welcome everyone. The actions announced by the Treasury Department today have been carried out in close coordination with the State Department and, indeed, are fully consistent with our foreign policy objectives in each of the countries described, as well as globally.
Our aim is always to identify human rights challenges and use American influence and power to move every nation towards better, more consistent human rights practices. And part of that is our efforts to promote accountability.
I would mention that, in addition to the GLOMAG -- Global Magnitsky sanctions that Treasury has just announced, the State Department today is designating two individuals under a separate authority we have, namely section 7031(c) of the Department of State Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2019.
This authority provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information, that officials of foreign governments have been involved in a gross violation of human rights or significant corruption, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.
The two individuals who we will be designating today include Mohammed al Otaibi -- the former Consul General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turkey -- for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Our action today is another important step in responding to Khashoggi's killing. Mr. al Otaibi was previously designated on November the 15th, 2018, under the executive order associated with the Global Magnitsky Act. But it did not include designation under 7031(c). And we are doing that today.
Secondly, we are designating a Russian national, Mr. Aslan Iraskhanov, head of the Ministry of Interior Affairs for the City of Grozny, in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, for this involvement in gross violations of human rights.
In his prior position as head of the A.A. Kadyrov police unit, Mr. Iraskhanov was credibly alleged to be responsible for the summary execution of 27 men. So we are designating him under Section 7031(c) for those actions.
And, with that, I’ll stop.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. Now we’ll turn it over to [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi. Thank you everyone for joining today on International Human Rights Day. Today we want to underscore, as the other two callers did, the United States’ commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights globally.
All beings are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and it is the duty of every government to protect these rights. We acknowledge the truth that people around the world are empowered when human rights are protected by law.
On December 10, 1948, inspired by the U.S. Bill of Rights, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Unfortunately, millions around the world are still suffering from unjust imprisonment, religious persecution, and countless other human rights abuses. The United States has long been at the forefront of addressing human rights, and we will always stand up for individual freedoms and against all forms of oppression.
As part of this administration’s efforts to protect human rights, in July, State Department hosted the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.
In September, President Trump was the first President to host a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly on religious freedom, calling on all nations to act to bring an end to religious persecution and stop crimes against people of faith.
In January 2019, President Trump signed into law the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, continuing this administration’s strong stance against the evils of mass atrocity and genocide.
In September 2019, President Trump launched the Atrocity Early Warning Task Force. This White House-led interagency task force leads the United States government’s efforts to prevent, mitigate, and respond to mass atrocities. As President Trump has said, we will never, ever be silent in the face of evil again, and we pledge: Never again.
Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. Moderator, we’re now ready to open up for a few questions.
Q Hi. This is Andrew Feinberg with Breakfast Media. Thanks for doing this call. Real quick: I had two questions.
First is, why is, in your list of these countries that commit human rights abuses, including imprisoning journalists, is Turkey not on your list? There are currently 68 journalists imprisoned in Turkey. It’s one the biggest, if not the biggest, jailer of journalists in the world.
And also, can you guys say, just definitively, that journalists, both American and elsewhere, are not the enemies of the people?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This is the Treasury Department. We had a little trouble hearing the question, but, you know, we certainly agree strongly with the premise that journalists are not the enemy of the people.
I think you started off with a question about Turkey, and we’ll let State handle that.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes. Today’s designations announcements are not -- we’re not able to cover every country in the world where there are significant human rights abuses. We have regularly called out the human rights abuses that have occurred in Turkey, including the repression of journalists, and we will continue to do so.
But the fact that we haven’t taken specific sanctions or imposed specific sanctions related to journalists in Turkey does not mean we don’t care about that issue nor does it mean that we aren’t taking action to address the issue.
Q Hi. Yes, thank you. This is David Nakamura with the Washington Post. There were reports yesterday that, at the United Nations today, there was supposed to be a discussion about North Korea’s human rights violations -- that the United States objected to that. And that schedule was, in fact, changed; that hearing was cancelled. And instead, there will be a discussion of nonproliferation issues related to North Korea on the Korean Peninsula tomorrow instead.
I’m wondering why -- if you all could address why that happened -- whether the United States is prioritizing the nuclear issue over human rights and is concerned that having that event would have angered Kim Jong Un, and that’s why you’ve pushed to cancel it.
Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, [senior administration official] from National Security Council. I mean, as Ambassador Craft explained extensively during her press conference last week, the U.S. does care about human rights globally. And we are addressing human rights throughout the program of work in December, as we address it in all of the political sessions in the Security Council, the UNAMI session, the Syria session.
So we do address human rights issues, and we will be addressing the issues in North Korea, as you mentioned. We're having a comprehensive update on the recent developments on the missile launches, and we feel that that's the best use of the Security Council attention this week.
Q Hi, there. This is Owen Churchill with the South China Morning Post. Thanks so much for doing this. I missed the top of this call, so apologies if this was addressed. But I wondered if you could give me an update on the administration's current considerations regarding any sanctioning action on the Chinese government regarding the mass internment camps in Xinjiang, and specifically whether any of those concerns or considerations were affected or placated by the reports earlier this week that the governor there said that the camps are being normalized and all of the so-called graduates have been released. Thanks so much.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This is [senior administration official] over at Treasury. Listen, we remain deeply concerned with China's repressive campaign in Xinjiang. We can’t comment on, sort of, possible or pending investigations or sanctions. But we're working very closely with the State Department as part of a whole-of-government strategy to address what's going on.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I was just going to add, I think as folks know, we did take actions -- I believe it was in October -- of imposing these restrictions on Chinese officials complicit in the human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as well as actions by the Department of Commerce in designating entities that are also responsible for human rights abuses in China. So those actions have been taken. And as [senior administration official] mentioned, we will be considering other actions as appropriate.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, thank you everyone for joining today's call. As a reminder, this call is attributable on background to senior administration officials. The call is now concluded and the embargo will be lifted at 10:30 when the Treasury designates it to go live.
Have a great day.
END 10:25 A.M. EST
