Inside the Tatmadaw

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Description: "Sep. 24, 2021, Myanmar: Singapore Stock Exchange-listed company Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (ETC) has released an extract of the first of two independent review reports into the company’s payments to the Myanmar military and its fundraising. The review is a response to regulatory actions taken by the Singapore Stock Exchange following Justice For Myanmar’s publication of an investigation into ETC’s business with the office of the quartermaster general of the Myanmar army for the Golden City real estate development. Justice For Myanmar found that ETC’s payments to the quartermaster general, which is the office tasked with weapons purchases, finances the military’s international crimes. In its announcement of regulatory actions, SGX asked ETC to respond to Justice For Myanmar’s report and for the company and its sponsor, RHT Capital Pte. Ltd., to confirm that ETC is suitable for listing, citing Practice Note 2B, paragraph 8(b), “entities that may be involved in or connected with any money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit activities should not be listed”. The review of transactions, carried out by Nexia TS (associated with the UK firm Smith & Williamson), looked at payment transactions in relation to ETC’s Myanmar subsidiary, Golden Land Real Estate Development, one of the lessees of the Golden City development. The reviewers identified two payments to the office of the quartermaster general in 2018 and one in 2020, totalling US$5.035 million. According to the summary of findings, payments to the army were communicated “verbally and there were no formal written invoices”. The review also found that annual payments to the army were made in MMK using a below market exchange rate of 830 MMK to the USD agreed to with the quartermaster general’s office, although the reviewers noted that there is “no formal written agreement or notification”. ETC has kept the balance as an accrued land lease premium. Justice For Myanmar asked ETC to explain why the army agreed to deflate the exchange rate, where the accrued land lease premium account is kept and whether ETC has paid or intends to pay these funds in another way. The company has yet to provide a response. The reviewers concluded that “based on our agreed upon scope of work and summary of findings, the payment transactions extracted and reviewed were conducted in the ordinary course of business.” Nexia TS did not investigate connections between payments to the Myanmar army and “money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit activities”. Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “ETC’s independent review provides further evidence of the company’s financing of the Myanmar military, an international criminal entity that continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Myanmar army is systemically corrupt, so it is unsurprising that they do not even issue invoices for payments received. The army is exempt from Auditor-General scrutiny and ETC’s independent review demonstrates that the funds paid to the army are untraceable. ETC must explain the exchange rate discrepancy, which is particularly concerning given the military’s history of exchange rate corruption. The Myanmar army’s ongoing atrocities include mass killings, torture and rape, crimes that ETC is aiding and abetting through its business dealings, supported by its listing on the SGX. We therefore urge the SGX to delist ETC from the stock exchange.” ‍ Note to editors See Justice For Myanmar’s report into ETC here: https://www.justiceformyanmar.org/stories/singapore-stock-exchange-listed-real-estate-firm-contributes-millions-for-myanmar-army Justice For Myanmar, a group of covert activists campaigning for justice and accountability for the people of Myanmar, is calling for an end to military business and for federal democracy and a sustainable peace..."
Source/publisher: Justice For Myanmar
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf
Size: 212.69 KB 109.73 KB
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Sub-title: A major who abandoned LID 99 says a culture of fear has long stopped soldiers from leaving the army, but now feels that may change
Description: "An army major who recently broke rank has described Myanmar’s military as an institution rife with rank- and class-based discrimination, a reality that he said had made soldiers consider defecting prior to the February 1 coup. Major Hein Thaw Oo, of the Meikhtila-based Light Infantry Division (LID) 99, was the highest-ranking known defector from the military at the time of reporting. He abandoned the military after 20 years and joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience (CDM) on March 24. A native of Magwe Region and a 2002 graduate of the 48th intake of the Defence Services Academy, the major had been stationed on the frontline in Lashio, northern Shan State. There, LID 99– whose soldiers are among the military’s “shock troops”– is known to have engaged in brutal clashes with ethnic armed organisations based in the region. “In the military, for whatever reason, you’re always scared of anyone who has a higher rank than you,” Hein Thaw Oo told Myanmar Now. The major said that the military “alienated” anyone who questioned the institution or its practises. “It’s not just now, it has always been this way. If they don’t get along with you, you’re pushed aside. Not only that, you get in trouble,” he explained. Those who, like him, have defected from the military and police are largely sheltering in areas controlled by ethnic armed organisations. Hein Thaw Oo insisted there are more who want to defect, “from sergeants on upward.” “If you don’t believe it, go ask them. If you ask them if they want to get out, they’d get out, dancing,” the major said. The major said that he planned to undertake a temporary monkhood, and would later join a federal army to fight against the junta’s armed forces. At least 739 civilians have been killed nationwide by the military regime during Myanmar’s anti-dictatorship Spring Revolution since the February 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group which has been monitoring the violence. On April 9 alone, more than 80 civilians who were protesting peacefully in Bago were murdered during a crackdown by the junta’s armed forces that involved the use of heavy artillery. Hein Thaw Oo told Myanmar Now that the suppression of public opposition at these demonstrations has been directly ordered by military strategists from the junta’s Ministry of Defence in Naypyitaw. Military officers consider protest sites to be battlefields, and ignore when lower ranking soldiers loot homes or commit robberies and extortion, he explained. “I assume they’re giving these orders so that they can let the soldiers on the ground just roam freely and do what they want,” the major said, adding that this was how the military treated conflict areas. Dr. Lian Hmung Sakhong, the federal union affairs minister with the newly formed interim cabinet of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), recently said that he believed there were more officers who would leave if given the chance. The cabinet, known as the National Unity Government (NUG), urged military and police to defect and stand with the public at an NUG press conference on April 16. Dr. Lian Hmung Sakhong invited military officers he came to know during his work on peace negotiations between the Myanmar army and ethnic armed organisations to join the CDM. “Don’t follow [military chief] Min Aung Hlaing, follow justice and truth,” he said at the press conference, addressing those still serving in the regime’s armed forces. “Join us in building a society where everyone treats each other with humanity.” Although there are soldiers who are dissatisfied with the military coup, chances of a mutiny depend on the NUG’s governing capacity, Major Hein Thaw Oo told Myanmar Now. Captain Htun Myat Aung, a 15-year veteran of Myanmar’s military and another recent defector, said the same. He was among those whom Myanmar Now spoke to who speculated that other soldiers were waiting to see the NUG’s next moves before abandoning the armed forces. “The military has been broken for a while. But they’ve instilled so much fear [in soldiers] that it would take a big spark that could combat this,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 196.52 KB
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Description: "This project aims to challenge the stigma that often surrounds discussions of the Tatmadaw, and listen to soldiers from their rank and file; to ask soldiers what they think about the peace process, and to listen to their perspectives, desires and challenges. Through listening to Tatmadaw soldiers, the project seeks to better understand how their experiences within the institution and being directly involved on the frontlines of conflict have shaped their opinions of peace and the peace process and to better understand their concerns and desires for the future. Listening teams went to six different regions across Myanmar, where military bases were located and found that soldiers could, and wanted to, share their opinions, experiences and stories. In total, the project listened to 67 soldiers over one month in June, 2014. This project is an attempt to look at the Tatmadaw as an institution comprised of individuals, to build awareness, share personal perspectives and highlight the diversity of the institution. It was carried out with the hope to engage the Tatmadaw more holistically in the peace process in the future..."
Source/publisher: Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS)
2015-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-09-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 551.25 KB
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