At least 14 members of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party (NLD) were also given prison sentences of four to 10 years, said party spokesman Nyan Win.
Rights groups say Myanmar has intensified efforts to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010 with a string of heavy sentences handed down to activists this week over the demonstrations in August and September 2007.
"Four monks were sentenced to eight years imprisonment each" at court hearings on Thursday, Nyan Win told AFP, without giving further details.
Also on Thursday, 11 NLD members from the commercial hub of Yangon were jailed for seven-and-a-half years each and another three were given sentences of four to 10 years, he said.
Rights groups say Myanmar has intensified efforts to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010 with a string of heavy sentences handed down to activists this week over the demonstrations in August and September 2007.
"Four monks were sentenced to eight years imprisonment each" at court hearings on Thursday, Nyan Win told AFP, without giving further details.
Also on Thursday, 11 NLD members from the commercial hub of Yangon were jailed for seven-and-a-half years each and another three were given sentences of four to 10 years, he said.
US freezes assets of alleged Myanmar drug traffickers
Targeted were those linked to the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the most powerful drug trafficking organization in southeast Asia, and Wei Hsueh Kang, a senior UWSA commander, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
They were named "Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers" by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
The Treasury said its "action freezes any assets the 43 designees may have under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities."
Corporations found violating the Kingpin Act could be fined up to ten million dollars while corporate officers could be fined up to five million dollars and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Other individuals could face up to 10 years in prison and fines.
The United Wa State Army "is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine," according to OFAC Deputy Director Barbara Hammerle who was quoted in the department's statement.
"Today OFAC is targeting the Wa's lieutenants and the financial holdings of this massive drug trafficking organization. We call on other nations to do the same," Hammerle was quoted as saying.
Under the Kingpin Act, US President George W. Bush identified as significant foreign narcotics traffickers Wei Hsueh Kang, in 2000, and the UWSA, around three years later, it added.
In January 2005, federal prosecutors in New York "unsealed a criminal indictment charging Wei, along with his brothers Wei Hsueh Lung and Wei Hsueh Ying, who are designated today, for narcotics trafficking," it said.
The US State Department is offering a reward of up to two million dollars for tips leading to Wei's capture.
Others named by the OFAC are Pao Yu Hsiang, Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng.
Pao Yu Hsiang, indicted in 2005 with Wei Hsueh Kang, is the commander-in-chief of the UWSA, the treasury said.
In 2005, prosecutors in New York charged Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng, among others, with money laundering and narcotics trafficking, it said.
In 2007, Hong Kong authorities arrested Ho Chun Ting, a partner of Wei Hsueh Kang, but Hong Kong later released him for unknown reasons, the treasury said.
Shih Kuo Neng is the manager of the Hong Pang conglomerate of companies, many of which were also named Wednesday.
Nyan Win said five other monks arrested in September last year from Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in Yangon were sentenced to six-and-a-half years each on Tuesday at the notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of the city.
The Myanmar protests began as small rallies in August 2007 against the rising cost of living, but escalated into huge demonstrations led by Buddhist monks that posed the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
At least 31 people were killed when security forces cracked down on the protesters, according to the United Nations. Hundreds more activists remain in jail, rights groups say.
The latest sentences bring to around 50 the number of activists sentenced to jail by courts in Myanmar this week in a major crackdown, including a prominent blogger and a leading poet, a western diplomat in Yangon said.
The five monks sentenced on Tuesday were included in the numbers earlier announced by relatives and opposition figures, although it was not known until Friday that they were monks.
Many of those jailed this week were former students who led an uprising in 1988 and then took part in the August protests, most of whom received sentences of 65 years each.
They were named "Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers" by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
The Treasury said its "action freezes any assets the 43 designees may have under US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities."
Corporations found violating the Kingpin Act could be fined up to ten million dollars while corporate officers could be fined up to five million dollars and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Other individuals could face up to 10 years in prison and fines.
The United Wa State Army "is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine," according to OFAC Deputy Director Barbara Hammerle who was quoted in the department's statement.
"Today OFAC is targeting the Wa's lieutenants and the financial holdings of this massive drug trafficking organization. We call on other nations to do the same," Hammerle was quoted as saying.
Under the Kingpin Act, US President George W. Bush identified as significant foreign narcotics traffickers Wei Hsueh Kang, in 2000, and the UWSA, around three years later, it added.
In January 2005, federal prosecutors in New York "unsealed a criminal indictment charging Wei, along with his brothers Wei Hsueh Lung and Wei Hsueh Ying, who are designated today, for narcotics trafficking," it said.
The US State Department is offering a reward of up to two million dollars for tips leading to Wei's capture.
Others named by the OFAC are Pao Yu Hsiang, Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng.
Pao Yu Hsiang, indicted in 2005 with Wei Hsueh Kang, is the commander-in-chief of the UWSA, the treasury said.
In 2005, prosecutors in New York charged Ho Chun Ting and Shih Kuo Neng, among others, with money laundering and narcotics trafficking, it said.
In 2007, Hong Kong authorities arrested Ho Chun Ting, a partner of Wei Hsueh Kang, but Hong Kong later released him for unknown reasons, the treasury said.
Shih Kuo Neng is the manager of the Hong Pang conglomerate of companies, many of which were also named Wednesday.
Nyan Win said five other monks arrested in September last year from Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in Yangon were sentenced to six-and-a-half years each on Tuesday at the notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of the city.
The Myanmar protests began as small rallies in August 2007 against the rising cost of living, but escalated into huge demonstrations led by Buddhist monks that posed the biggest challenge to junta rule in nearly two decades.
At least 31 people were killed when security forces cracked down on the protesters, according to the United Nations. Hundreds more activists remain in jail, rights groups say.
The latest sentences bring to around 50 the number of activists sentenced to jail by courts in Myanmar this week in a major crackdown, including a prominent blogger and a leading poet, a western diplomat in Yangon said.
The five monks sentenced on Tuesday were included in the numbers earlier announced by relatives and opposition figures, although it was not known until Friday that they were monks.
Many of those jailed this week were former students who led an uprising in 1988 and then took part in the August protests, most of whom received sentences of 65 years each.
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