Myanmar "feels sad" over a US decision to sanction a military general, a government spokesman said, after Washington linked the commander last week to abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
"This targeted sanction is based on unreliable accusations without evidence, as we have repeatedly said, so we feel sad for that," Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, told Reuters by phone late on Tuesday.
The Trump administration announced on Dec 21 that it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who was in charge of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine.
The United States, as well as the United Nations, have called the crackdown "ethnic cleansing". About 655,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and sought shelter over the border in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.
The United States said American officials had "examined credible evidence of Maung Maung Soe's activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages".
The military and the civilian government of Suu Kyi have denied allegations of widespread abuse in Rakhine.
The testimonies of Rohingya refugees were only "talking stories", Zaw Htay said, adding that Myanmar would act if it received "reliable and strong evidence" that its troops committed crimes.
"We have told international governments and human rights groups including the U.N. that the current government is committed to protecting and promoting human rights," said Zaw Htay.
The U.S. Treasury said Maung Maung Soe, former chief of the army's Western Command, would have his U.S. assets frozen and Americans could no longer deal with him.
Reuters was unable to determine if Maung Maung Soe had business interests in Myanmar or elsewhere.
Maung Maung Soe was transferred from his post in Rakhine and "put in reserve", an army spokesman told Reuters on Nov. 13. No reason was given, but the military said the same day action would be taken against officials who were "weak in acquiring information" and who allowed the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) to spread through Muslim villages in Rakhine.
Reuters was unable to contact Maung Maung Soe. Major General Tun Tun Nyi of the military's public relations division, the True News Information Unit, said he had no comment on the sanctions and declined to answer questions on Maung Maung Soe.
As well as dominating the country's politics for decades, Myanmar's army - known as the Tatmadaw or "Royal Force" - has gained notoriety for brutal counter-insurgency tactics employed against rebels seeking autonomy in the borderlands since independence from Britain in 1948, according to historians and human rights monitors.
-REUTERS
