Myanmar’s military government has not announced the arrests. However, local news agencies The Irrawaddy and Myanmar Now and international news agency Reuters reported that Bowman could be charged under the country’s Immigration Act. The Irrawaddy reported that Bowman and Htein Lin are being held at Yangon’s Insein Prison. A spokesman for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Thursday that the British government was “concerned” by the arrest of a “British woman” in Myanmar. “We are in contact with local authorities and are providing consular assistance,” the spokesman said. Bowman served as the UK’s top diplomat in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and has remained in the country since then as founder of the non-governmental organization Myanmar Center for Responsible Business. On Wednesday, the UK announced a new round of sanctions targeting businesses linked to Myanmar’s junta, which took power in a bloody coup in February 2021. On Thursday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the measures were being taken “to target the military’s access to weapons and revenue”. Among the companies on the sanctions list are Star Sapphire Group of Companies, International Gateways Group of Companies and Sky One Construction Company. The UK government stressed that the sanctions came exactly five years after a series of violent attacks by the Myanmar military on Rohingya communities living in the country’s Rakhine state. The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group in the majority Buddhist state of Myanmar, have suffered persecution for decades. The UK government also announced its intention to intervene in a legal case to determine whether Myanmar breached its obligations under the UN Genocide Convention over the military’s actions against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017. “Our decision to intervene in The Gambia v. Myanmar and a further round of sanctions sends a strong message of our continued support for seeking accountability for the atrocities of 2017 and also restricts the military junta’s access to funding and arms procurement. ” said UK Asia Secretary Amanda Milling. Milling reiterated the UK’s condemnation of the “horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar Armed Forces” five years after the campaign began.
