The Burmese military's role in the economy
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"The Myanmar military has been invited to the Tri-Service Asian Defense & Security Exhibition, Conference and Networking Event, running in Bangkok from August 29 to September 1.
The Asian Defense & Security 2022 visitor profile features “High-Ranking Officials from Defence Ministries and Departments, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force” and lists Myanmar as one of the countries.
Defense & Security 2022 involves an arms fair, seminars, technical presentations and live demonstrations, supported by Thailand’s Ministry of Defence. The conference website lists the ASEAN Defence Industry Collaboration as part of the event, an ASEAN program that includes the Myanmar military.
In the last Asian Defense & Security, held in 2019, war criminal Min Aung Hlaing led the military’s delegation, and the army’s Myanmar Defence Industry had a booth.
Other official Defense & Security invitees include Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, South Korea and Spain, all of which have arms embargoes in place against Myanmar. The USA has a “partnership pavilion”.
Exhibitors with a record of selling arms and dual use goods to the Myanmar military include CETC, Elbit Systems, NORINCO and Thales.
The event organiser, GML (Thailand), is a joint venture registered in China and 49% owned by Informa, a UK corporation listed on the London Stock Exchange, according to its last annual report.
Informa did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar on the Myanmar military junta’s attendance and if they will be exhibiting in 2022.
Informa is the parent company of the academic publishing giant, Taylor & Francis Group, and its subsidiary, Routledge.
Informa acquired the Hong Kong based exhibition business UBM in June 2018, giving them a stake in GML.
Other upcoming Informa events, where there is a risk that junta representatives could attend, include IFSEC India, a security industry trade fair to be held in New Delhi on December 1-3, showcasing surveillance technology. IFSEC India partner, Hikvision, has supplied CCTV equipment to the Myanmar junta. In 2018, the Myanmar police chief was a VIP guest at an IFSEC event in Southeast Asia, also organised by Informa.
On December 7-10, Informa is co-organising Marintec, an exhibition in Shanghai supported by the Equipment Department of the PLA Navy and co-sponsored by China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited, a state-owned navy shipbuilder. Chin State Shipbuilding Corporation is a supplier of the Myanmar Navy, according to leaked documents concerning procurement.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “We condemn Informa’s involvement in arms fairs that support the Myanmar military’s procurement of arms and equipment for use against the people.
“Informa must ensure that the Myanmar junta and its associates are barred from Defense & Security 2022, and all future events, and explain why it allowed Min Aung Hlaing to participate and exhibit in Defense & Security 2019, two years after the Myanmar military’s campaign of genocide against the Rohingya.
“By exhibiting locally produced arms, Informa has helped the Myanmar military develop export markets that can provide it with revenue to finance its international crimes and enrich war criminals.
“Since the military’s February 1, 2021 illegal attempted coup, the junta has launched a terror campaign that has involved the murder of over 2,200 people, the arrest of more than 15,000, widespread torture, indiscriminate air strikes and shelling, and mass forced displacement.
“The junta’s atrocity crimes are enabled by the continued flow of funds and arms. These must be cut.
“We urge academics who publish research through Taylor & Francis to pressure Informa to ban the Myanmar junta from all its events.
“We demand ASEAN immediately exclude the Myanmar military junta from all events, meetings and activities, including those associated with Defense & Security 2022, and recognise and engage with the National Unity Government as the legitimate government of Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-28
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Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"Euromoney has awarded the military linked United Amara Bank (UAB) as “Best Bank” in Myanmar. Euromoney is a UK-based banking and finance media corporation.
Asiamoney, Euromoney’s sister publication, also gave UAB best bank in Myanmar awards for “Best Domestic Bank”, “Best Bank for ESG” and “Best Bank for SMEs”.
UAB is connected to the crony conglomerate, IGE Group of Companies, whose core entity, International Group of Entrepreneur Co. Ltd. was sanctioned by the EU on February 21, 2022.
In its sanctions designation, the EU stated, “IGE provided the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] with financial support in 2017 in connection to the Rakhine ‘clearance operations’ and thus contributed to serious human rights violations in 2017 against the Rohingya population. IGE has also provided the Tatmadaw with indirect financial support by taking financial participations in several projects and companies linked to the Tatmadaw and its conglomerates. Therefore, it provides support to and benefits from the Tatmadaw.”
IGE is owned by Ne Aung, brother of the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Navy, Moe Aung. Ne Aung’s father, Aung Thaung, now deceased, was a minister in the former military junta and was a notorious hardliner who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 for “perpetuating violence, oppression, and corruption”.
A 2008 US embassy cable, released by Wikileaks, called Ne Aung and his other brother, Pyi Aung, “rising cronies” and described how they “use their family connections and close ties to the regime to amass great wealth”.
According to Myanmar’s company registry, Ne Aung and his wife, Khin Moe Nyunt, were the sole owners of UAB Bank Limited until March 8, 2022, when they transferred their shares to two shell companies: Future Growth Investment Co. Ltd., owned by Myo Aung, and Capital Link Investment Co. Ltd., owned by Aye Aye Swe.
Future Growth Investment and Capital Link Investment were both established on March 1, 2022.
Myo Aung and Aye Aye Swe do not appear on directors lists of any other current or former Myanmar registered companies. Myo Aung may be a cousin of Ne Aung, who is an army colonel. Colonel Myo Aung was court marshalled for his involvement in the killing of five detained villagers in northern Shan State in 2016, and was reportedly the manager of an IGE subsidiary.
Corporate filings show Ne Aung left the UAB board of directors on February 25, four days after the EU sanctions designation against IGE. Ne Aung had previously acted as the bank’s chairperson.
The restructure of UAB, days after EU sanctions on IGE, appears to be an attempt to evade sanctions by creating a false separation between UAB, IGE and Ne Aung.
UAB remains linked to IGE Group through common directors. The most significant is IGE Group’s CEO, Than Win Swe, who remains a director of UAB after the ownership restructure. Than Win Swe and Ne Aung are the sole directors of the EU-sanctioned entity, International Group of Entrepreneur Co. Ltd.
Thant Zin, another UAB director, remains on the board of UAB infrastructure development subsidiary Future Creator Group Construction, and, until early 2022, was a director of IGE Land.
It is likely that Myo Aung and Aye Aye Swe are proxy shareholders, and that Ne Aung maintains ownership of the bank. Ne Aung’s control may be exercised through IGE, which would make UAB subject to EU sanctions.
Asiamoney also gave a CSR award to the crony bank KBZ, part of KBZ group of companies. KBZ is linked to the UK, US and EU sanctioned military conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), and has used its philanthropic arm, the Brighter Future Foundation, to make major donations to the military in support of the 2017 Rohingya genocide.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar recommended that KBZ be criminally investigated for making a direct and substantial contribution to crimes against humanity.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Despite attempts at concealment, UAB is clearly linked to Ne Aung’s IGE group, a business empire that has built immense wealth from dealings with the Myanmar military and its conglomerates, profiting from the military’s systemic corruption and enriching war criminals.
“IGE’s complicity in the Rohingya genocide and financial relationships with a murderous military are well established, including in the recent EU sanctions designation.
“It is inexcusable that Euromoney has given its “Best Bank in Myanmar” award to UAB, reputation laundering for a bank that is deeply connected to an EU sanctioned company.
“Since the military’s attempted coup, the junta has murdered more than 2,100 people and arrested over 15,000, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners.
“The junta’s international crimes are enabled by IGE, KBZ and other crony companies that provide the junta with sources of revenue to finance its campaign of terror.
“Euromoney and Asiamoney must act responsibly and revoke their awards to UAB and KBZ immediately.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-16
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"The recent arrest of a controversial Chinese businessman by Thai police for running an illegal online casino would not have impact on his mega project and gaming venture in Myanmar, said an official from the company that is operating the project near the Thai border.
She Zhijiang was arrested in Bangkok last week. He is the subject of an international arrest warrant for allegedly running an illegal online casino, Thai police said Saturday.
Chinese and other media reports say the 40-year-old has been on the run from Chinese authorities since 2012. He has had controversial mega projects and gaming ventures in Cambodia and at Shwe Kokko in Myanmar’s Karen state, as well as a lottery venture in the Philippines.
An official from Myanmar Yatai International Co., Ltd, which is developing the Shwe Kokko project, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he had learned about the arrest.
“It won’t have any impact on Shwe Kokko. He may be arrested for his activities in other countries,” he said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Initiated as a new city project near the Thai border in 2017, the US$15-billion project is a collaboration between the BGF—a Myanmar military-backed armed group led by Colonel Chit Thu formerly known as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)—and a Hong Kong-registered company, Yatai International Holding Group (IHG). Myanmar Yatai International Co., Ltd is registered in Myanmar as a collaboration between IHG and Chit Lin Myaning, a company run by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) active in the Shwe Kokko area near Myawaddy Township in Myanmar’s Karen State. She Zhijiang is the chairman of Yatai Group.
However it was halted and investigated by the National League for Democracy (NLD) government in 2019 due to a lack of transparency, land confiscations, confusion over the scale of construction and the growing influx of Chinese money as well as suspected illicit activity involving casino businesses. The Chinese Embassy in Yangon expressed support for Myanmar’s move to investigate the irregularities.
In 2020, however, Yatai IHG’s management continued its gambling operations in the new city, which was only partially finished, in spite of a coronavirus lockdown. That year, both Thai and Chinese citizens were arrested in Mae Sot by Thai border police after entering Thailand illegally. Those arrested confessed to having worked at casinos within Shwe Kokko. Their testimony indicates that both online and traditional casinos are still operating in Karen State.
Colonel Chit Thu told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the new city project is currently halted. He couldn’t say exactly how it would be affected by the arrest of She.
“I think he was arrested for what he was involved in before the Shwe Kokko project,” the colonel said.
When asked about gambling in the new city, he said Shwe Kokko is not a gambling city.
“We only have a little casino venue,” he said.
Interpol issued a red notice for She in May 2021. He faces criminal charges in China related to running a casino and could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, AFP reported.
Between January 2018 and February 2021, She — who heads up a “criminal gang” — colluded with others to register companies, and research and develop online gambling platforms, the red notice says.
The notice adds that online gambling websites including Hongshulin, Yigou and Yiyou International were set up and 330,000 gamblers were recruited..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-15
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"116 Myanmar and Singapore companies with 262 directors and shareholders have brokered the supply of weapons and other equipment worth many millions in US dollars to the Myanmar military, including since the illegal attempted coup of February 1, 2021.
The known brokers include 31 companies with 77 directors and shareholders that Justice For Myanmar has identified as suppliers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have had active business with the military since its coup attempt.
These brokers of arms and equipment for a military that has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide must be urgently sanctioned.
Justice For Myanmar has also identified 27 companies with 51 directors and shareholders that brokered arms and equipment to the Myanmar military since 2017– the year of the Rohingya genocide. Justice For Myanmar also calls for sanctions against these companies and individuals.
Linked to the total of 78 Myanmar-based companies supplying the military are at least 38 subsidiary or associated companies in Singapore.
Singapore has long been a known financial and trade hub for the Myanmar military’s arms procurement and this poses an imminent threat to the lives of millions of Myanmar people.
As a member of ASEAN, Singapore has an obligation to play an instrumental role to resolve the Myanmar crisis, as well as a moral responsibility to act. It must end its complicity in the junta’s international crimes.
We are calling for international sanctions on arms brokers and their directors and shareholders in order to halt the flow of arms to the military junta.
We call on Singapore to impose immediate sanctions to ban the use of its territory, including its banks and ports, for the supply of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military.
The Myanmar military’s resources are used by the junta in its campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar.
The military junta has killed 2,158 civilians and imprisoned over 15,000 more since the military’s illegal attempted coup on February 1, 2021.
Since the attempted coup, the military junta has carried out indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, murdered villagers, committed rape, destroyed homes and crops, forcibly displacing an estimated 866,400 people.
Under the Arms Trade Treaty, to which 111 states are parties, it is prohibited to transfer arms with knowledge they would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies seeks to prevent the transfer of dual-use goods to countries of concern. Singapore is not party to the Arms Trade Treaty or the Wassenaar Arrangement.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “So far, only a few of the companies supplying arms and equipment to the military junta have been sanctioned. The vast majority are continuing to operate freely. This is unacceptable.
“When only a few countries impose sanctions, the junta is still able to get the arms, equipment and funds it needs to terrorise the people of Myanmar.
“Sanctions are only effective when they are imposed by all relevant countries, on all businesses and individuals enabling the junta and its atrocity crimes.
“JFM is calling for coordinated international sanctions on these companies and their directors and shareholders in order to stop the flow of arms and equipment to the military junta.
“Governments and companies – especially Singapore – have significant power to end the military junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Without meaningful action, Singapore will remain complicit in the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes.
“Singapore and other governments imposed swift and coordinated sanctions on the Russian government and its arms businesses in response to its aggression against Ukraine. The time is well overdue for governments to take a decisive and coordinated response to the Myanmar military’s international crimes.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-11
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"116 Myanmar and Singapore companies with 262 directors and shareholders have brokered the supply of weapons and other equipment worth many millions in US dollars to the Myanmar military, including since the illegal attempted coup of February 1, 2021.
The known brokers include 31 companies with 77 directors and shareholders that Justice For Myanmar has identified as suppliers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have had active business with the military since its coup attempt. These businesses and their directors and shareholders are complicit in the military’s atrocity crimes. Justice For Myanmar calls for urgent sanctions against these companies and individuals.
Justice For Myanmar has also identified 27 companies with 51 directors and shareholders that brokered arms and equipment to the Myanmar military since 2017– the year of the Rohingya genocide, preceding the coup attempt. They have been complicit in the military’s atrocity crimes and must be prevented from pursuing further business with the military. Justice For Myanmar calls for sanctions against these companies and individuals.
Linked to the total of 78 Myanmar-based companies brokering for the military are at least 38 subsidiary or associated companies in Singapore.
Singapore has long been a known financial and trade hub for the Myanmar military junta and this poses an imminent threat to the lives of millions of Myanmar people. As a member of ASEAN, Singapore has an important role to play to resolve the Myanmar crisis. It must start by ending its complicity in the junta’s international crimes.
Myanmar’s military resources have long been used in its campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar, in aggression against ethnic minorities who resisted its attempts to suppress their equal rights in the union. The military has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity against ethnic minorities and in 2017, committed genocide against the Rohingya. Since the 1 February 2021 attempted coup, that deliberate violence is directed against people across the country who continue to reject and resist the military’s ongoing attempt to seize power.
The suppliers of arms to the Myanmar military have had knowledge of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the brutal military. Those who continue to provide arms are complicit in the military’s atrocity crimes.
Since the military’s attempted coup, the military has carried out indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, murdered villagers, committed rape, destroyed homes and crops, and forcibly displaced an estimated 866,400 people.
Under the Arms Trade Treaty, to which 111 states are parties, it is prohibited to transfer arms with knowledge they would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies seeks to prevent the transfer of dual-use goods to countries of concern. 42 states are parties to the Wassenaar Agreement. However, Singapore is not a party to the Arms Trade Treaty or the Wassenaar Arrangement.
So far, only a few of the companies supplying arms and other products to the military junta have been sanctioned, while the vast majority are continuing to operate freely.
Companies brokering arms to Myanmar military
The following companies are confirmed to have brokered arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, and are divided into three categories, based on the current status of their identified business activities.
Category “A” lists brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have had business with the Myanmar military since the attempted coup.
Category “B” lists brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have conducted business with the Myanmar military following the Rohingya genocide from 2017 or later.
Justice For Myanmar calls for companies, directors and shareholders listed in category “A” and “B” to be sanctioned for their involvement in supplying the Myanmar military.
Category “C” includes brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have conducted business with the Myanmar military from 2015-2016, or where dates are not confirmed. The companies, their shareholders and directors should be monitored as there is a risk that they may have continued business with the Myanmar military. Any ongoing business with the Myanmar military must result in sanctions.
The sources are based on documents from the Myanmar Ministry of Defence's procurement department that have been leaked to JFM, previous disclosures made public by JFM, industry sources and other online and media sources.
Download the list of Myanmar military arms broker companies and individuals (11 August 2022): Download Excel File (65 kb)
Category A: Brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have had business with the Myanmar military since its coup attempt
A1 Group of Companies & subsidiaries: Yadanarbon Fibre Services Co. Ltd, Com & Com Co. Ltd, Terabit Wave Co. Ltd & Bright Sky Group Pte Ltd
A1 Group through its subsidiaries Yadanarbon Fibre Services Company Limited, Com & Com Company Limited, Terabit Wave Company Limited and Bright Sky Group Private Limited provide telecommunications technology and services to the Myanmar military.
According to Yadanarbon Fibre Services Co. Ltd’s website, the company has provided CCTV surveillance services to the Ministry of Defence, which is controlled by the war criminal Min Aung Hlaing.
Terabit Wave Co. Ltd and Com & Com Co. Ltd, which has business links to German and Israel companies, have had business with the Myanmar Army’s Directorate of Signals since 2014.
According to JFM sources, purchases are made through Bright Sky Group Pte Ltd, a Singaporean business unit of the A1 Group.
In 2017, Terabit Wave brokered or attempted to broker the procurement of optical transmission systems from the Korean firm Coweaver for the Directorate of Signals, according to a leaked letter sent by the company to the Directorate of Procurement in September 2017.
The four companies share common directors and shareholders. In addition, Yadanarbon Fibre Services Company Limited is also a shareholder in Telecom International Myanmar (Mytel), a military-controlled telecommunications operator in Myanmar, through Myanmar National Telecom Holdings.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Creative Exploration Ltd
Creative Exploration Limited (formerly known as mySpace International or My Space International Company Limited) has imported fuzes from India to the Myanmar military since the attempted coup.
The most recent shipment was on March 25, 2022 and consisted of 3,000 fuzes, according to records from the Panjiva trade database. This followed a similar shipment in 2020 and 2019.
The company has also imported digital forensics technology from the United States (US) firm Oxygen Forensics and a digital forensics examination station from the US firm Sirichie, both via Indian suppliers.
Creative Exploration Ltd is also a major broker of arms and equipment for the Myanmar police force.
The company is owned by Dr Kyaw Kyaw Htun, a former military officer and graduate of the Defence Services Technological Academy and his wife, Zar Phyu Tin Soe, is the daughter of a former military officer who was Myanmar’s ambassador to Russia.
For more details, see JFM’s feature
Dynasty Group & its subsidiaries
Dynasty Group of Companies, which has carried out business in the European Union (EU), supplied aircraft and spare parts manufactured by the German company Grob to the Myanmar Air Force.
A subsidiary of Dynasty Group, Dynasty International Company Limited, is also a key arms supplier to the Myanmar military, with links to companies in Russia, Belarus and Germany.
Dynasty International imported parts for Mi-17 helicopters since the attempted coup, according to data from the trade database, ImportGenius.
The Group’s director, Dr Aung Moe Myint, is the Belarus Honorary Consul to Myanmar.
His business unit registered in Singapore, Dynasty Excellency Pte Ltd, is highly likely to be used to facilitate arms transactions to Myanmar.
Aung Moe Myint is now targeted by sanctions from the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada, and his business Dynasty International Company Limited is also sanctioned by the UK.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Galaxy Shine Co. Ltd
Galaxy Shine Company Limited (formerly known as Aung Sein Hein Company Limited) has imported Mi-17 helicopter parts to Myanmar from Simplex LLC, a Russian supplier of aircraft parts, since the attempted coup.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Htoo Group of Companies & its subsidiaries: Myanmar Avia Export, Htoo Trading, YAECO
The Htoo Group of Companies (HGC) is a major crony conglomerate owned by arms broker Tay Za and his family.
Tay Za is a significant business associate of the Myanmar military, who has supplied the military with aircraft and parts through his companies, Myanmar Avia Export and Htoo Trading Company Limited.
Myanmar Avia Export Company has imported Mi-35P aircrafts and Mi-17 aircrafts parts worth millions of euros from Ukrainian firm Motor Sich and Russian firms including JSC Russian Helicopters, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY and a leaked letter from the Myanmar Air Force to the Directorate of Procurement, sent in November 2017. The company is now in liquidation.
The Group’s aviation service company Yangon Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (YAECO) has also provided services to the Myanmar Air Force.
The Htoo Group of Companies and some of key directors and shareholders have been sanctioned by the US, the UK and the EU for providing financial support and arms to the Myanmar military.
HGC has ongoing business with the Myanmar military and its conglomerates.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
International Gateways Group of Companies, Myanmar Consultancy Co. Ltd & Venture Sky International Ltd
International Gateways Group of Companies (IGG) through its subsidiary Gateways Hongkong Company Limited – was awarded contracts worth millions of US dollars to supply equipment including spare parts and upgrades for the air force’s fighter jets and other aircraft and weapons for warships to the Myanmar military.
According to JFM sources, IGG is one of the biggest arms suppliers to the Myanmar Air Force and Navy, especially in trade from China.
IGG’s managing director, Dr. Naing Htut Aung, is sanctioned by the US.
Dr. Naing Htut Aung was a key director and shareholder of Myanmar Consultancy Company Limited (MCC), which has procured equipment from ALLWE, a Russian trading company that specialises in the supply of aircraft parts and related equipment for Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters. In 2019, Myanmar Consultancy attempted to supply a CASA CN-235 military transport aircraft, according to a leaked proposal.
MCC was an online exhibitor at the MAKS 2021 air show in Russia, which the Myanmar military coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing attended in person.
For details, see JFM’s feature.
Dr. Naing Htut Aung’s Singapore business Venture Sky International Ltd has directly supplied aircraft spare parts to the Myanmar military.
The company had at least 12 contracts with the Myanmar Air Force to provide aircraft spare parts in 2016 alone.
Notably, this is the same year the company was established, indicating that the company was likely to have been set up as an intermediary for the Myanmar military amidst sanctions that were in place at the time.
According to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement, the 2016 purchases include:
53 spare parts for MiG-29 fighter planes worth over USD$ 3.3 million
213 spare parts for G-4 planes worth USD$ 800,000
197 spare parts for K-8w trainer jets worth USD$ 700,000
30 spare parts for Y-12 multi-use planes worth USD$ 100,000
7 spare parts for Mi-17 military helicopters worth USD$ 10,901
25 spare parts for Mi-17 military helicopters worth USD$ 47,203
289 spare parts for Cessna Citation CCII planes worth USD$ 1.4 million
4 spare parts for main components of CCII planes worth USD$ 43,640
57 spare parts for F-7 fighter planes worth USD$ 200,000
3 pieces of lifting equipment for Myanmar Navy worth USD$ 359,750
11 main components for MiG-29 fighter planes worth USD$ 1.1 million
5 main components for Bell-206 helicopters worth USD$ 44,650
In 2017, when the Myanmar military carried out a campaign of genocide against the Rohingya,
Venture Sky International Ltd also sold spare parts for PC-7 aircraft and Mi-17 helicopters to the Myanmar military.
Venture Sky International Ltd was dissolved in October 2021 after JFM reported on arms shipments involving Dr Naing Htut Aung’s companies.
Dr Naing Htut Aung is a key arms dealer to the Myanmar military and his businesses are currently only sanctioned in the US and continue to operate freely elsewhere.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
KT Group, Ky-Tha Group & their subsidiaries
KT Group of Companies and Ky-Tha Group of Companies have procured arms and dual use goods for the Myanmar military through their subsidiaries.
A subsidiary Kyaw Htet Kyaw Company is a key broker for the procurement of equipment and services for the Myanmar military, including the air force and the army’s Directorate of Procurement.
The company won a one-million-euro tender for the purchase of a Sub-Atlantic Super Mohawk remotely operated vehicle (ROV), manufactured by the US-based Forum Energy Technologies.
According to a leaked document, the transaction was made through subsidiary Ky-Tha Trading in Singapore.
KT Group subsidiary, MWG Limited, has procured Fokker planes for the Myanmar Air Force, according to the New York Times.
Subsidiaries Ky-Tha Trading and Ky-Tha Industrial Development have also procured and provided services related to Thales Coast Watcher 100s – a French-designed long-range coastal surveillance radar – for the Myanmar Navy.
These companies are owned by Moe Kyaw Thaung and his son Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung, who is the Chief Executive Officer of KT Group.
Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung is currently sanctioned by the US for being a business associate of the Myanmar military.
Yet, no other country has sanctioned his arms-dealing companies and their directors.
KT Group has ongoing business with the Myanmar military and its conglomerates. For more details, see New York Times reporting and JFM’s feature.
L T Resources Co. Ltd
L T Resources Company Limited is linked to the procurement of aircraft for the Myanmar Air Force.
The company is owned by Linn Htet and Mon Yee and Thida Myint (niece, nephew and sister of the junta’s State Administration Council member, Maung Maung Kyaw).
For more details, see Reuters reporting.
Mega Hill General Trading Co. Ltd
Mega Hill General Trading Company Limited has procured arms, dual use goods and spare parts for the Myanmar military, including after the attempted coup.
The company also has a history of procuring technology and providing services through the army’s Directorate of Procurement.
It also provides medical supplies to the Myanmar military's Defence Services Medical Academy.
The company has business links to German companies.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Miya Win International & Asia Golden Phoenix Consultancy Services
These two companies procure arms and dual use goods for the Myanmar military, including from Austria and Germany.
Miya Win International procured Austrian-made Schiebel Camcopter S-100 unmanned aerial vehicles for the Myanmar military, in breach of the EU arms embargo.
Asia Golden Phoenix Consultancy procured an ATR flight simulator from the Austrian firm Axis Simulation, and registered it with the European Air Safety Authority.
Miya Win International has imported parts and a full-scale training model for Camcopter S-100s since the illegal coup attempt.
Miya Win International is now subject to sanctions from the UK for its role in procuring arms on behalf of the Myanmar military.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Myanmar Chemical & Machinery Co. Ltd & its subsidiaries
Myanmar Chemical & Machinery Company Ltd (MCM) is owned by arms dealer Aung Hlaing Oo.
The company’s subsidiaries are suppliers of arms and related materiel to the Myanmar military and are also involved in arms production and a technical transfer project producing K-8 trainer jets in Myanmar with the Chinese state-owned arms company, CATIC. K-8 trainers were last commissioned during the junta’s air force anniversary celebrations in December 2021.
MCM was part of a project with the Ukrainian state-owned arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom and the army’s Directorate of Defence Industries to produce BTR-4 armoured personnel carriers (APCs), MMT-40 light tanks and 2SIU self-propelled howitzers.
MCM has supplied spare parts, tools and accessories for T-72 tanks to the Commander in Chief of the Myanmar Army’s Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps.
MCM has also procured arms from Serbia for the Myanmar military. A 2019 MCM proposal for the Myanmar Air Force, leaked to Justice For Myanmar, details aircraft-mounted rocket launchers, rockets, free-fall bombs, a multiple bomb launcher for use “on large surfaces” and fuses.
A Singaporean subsidiary of MCM Pacific Pte Ltd has provided parts for Mi-2, Mi-17 and Bell 206 helicopters to the Myanmar Air Force.
The company has also imported spare parts for a MTU12V 331TC 92 marine diesel engine as well as an engine display unit, propulsion system, lifesaving equipment and stern arrangement worth millions of US dollars for the Myanmar Navy.
MCM Pacific Pte Ltd supplied BTR-3U armoured personnel carrier parts to the Myanmar army’s Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps worth millions of euros.
MCM has been sanctioned by the US, UK and Canada.
For more details, see JFM’s feature and comany profile.
Myanmar New Era Trading Co. Ltd & Yatanarpon Aviation Support Co. Ltd
Myanmar New Era Trading Company Limited, owned by Aung Myo Win, former managing director of arms supplier Myanmar Consultancy Company Limited, has procured goods for the Myanmar military.
Data from the trade database Import Genius reveals that Myanmar New Era Trading Company Limited has shipped parts for Mi-17 and Mi-8 helicopters from Russia 83 times.
Yatanarpon Aviation Support Company Limited, which is linked to Myanmar New Era Trading Company Limited, has received aircraft parts from Ukroboronservice on behalf of the Myanmar military since 2020, including following the military’s attempted coup.
Yatanarpon Aviation Support Co. Ltd was formerly a company of Sit Taing Aung, Mexico's honorary consul to Myanmar, who has been sanctioned by the US and Canada for brokering arms on behalf of the Myanmar military.
Yatanarpon Aviation Support Co. Ltd is now in liquidation.
For more details, see JFM’s features here and here.
Sky Aviator Co. Ltd
Sky Aviator is a Myanmar miliary arms broker that has procured equipment from Russia and Ukraine since the attempted coup, including YAK-130 support equipment from Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), refitted turbojet engines from United Engine Corporation and engine parts from Rosoboronexport and Motor Sich.
According to a proposal leaked to JFM, Sky Aviator represents JSC Russian Helicopters in Myanmar.
Sky Aviator is subject to UK sanctions.
For more details, see JFM’s feature and details of recent shipments received from Russia by Sky Aviator Co. Ltd.
Star Sapphire Group
A subsidiary of Star Sapphire Group – Star Sapphire Trading Company Limited – has played a key role in brokering deals for arms and military equipment on behalf of the Myanmar military over many years.
Equipment procured has included defence technology and products from China and, previously from Israel.
The company’s Managing Director, Dr Tun Min Latt, is directly involved in these arms deals and has direct access to military coup leader Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing.
His wife Dr Tun Min Latt jointly formed a company with Khin Thiri Thet Mon, daughter of Min Aung Hlaing.
The company has ongoing business with the Myanmar military.
For details, see JFM’s feature.
Synpex Shwe Co. Ltd
The Synpex Shwe Company Limited procured material for the Myanmar Air Force in March 2021 and the company is also a supplier for the Directorate of Defence Industries.
Synpex Shwe is now subjected to sanctions from the UK for its role in procuring arms on behalf of the Myanmar military.
For more details, see the JFM feature.
Trident Marine Co. Ltd, Amber Star General Trading Co. Ltd, Atland Services Pte Ltd and D&K Intertrade Pte Ltd
These companies have supplied equipment and services worth many millions of US dollars for the Myanmar navy, as part of a major frigate construction project.
In the aftermath of the junta’s illegal coup attempt, Trident Marine Co. Ltd staff together with a Myanmar navy delegation travelled to Ukraine as part of the frigate project.
The deal was brokered in partnership with the Ukrainian-owned Singaporean company, Atland Services Pte Ltd, according to an industry source.
Trident Marine Co. Ltd also procured ship parts for the Myanmar Navy in 2015-16, including navigation equipment, electrical fittings and steering equipment.
For more details, see Myanmar Now reporting and JFM’s feature.
Category B: Brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who have had business with the Myanmar military during the 2017-18 financial year or later
Aero Sofi Co. Ltd & Asia Trading Group Pte Ltd
Aero Sofi Company Limited is a supplier to the Myanmar Air Force.
The company’s agreements with the Myanmar Air Force include the luxury refurbishment of an Airbus A319-112 plane worth millions of US dollars, which was cancelled after it was exposed, and a proposed US$38.6 million deal to purchase two Airbus CASA C-295 military transport planes from the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
The company is wholly owned by an arms broker, Sai Kham Park Hpa, who holds a stake in the Singapore-based Asia Trading Group Private Limited, a company which is facilitates the transactions.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Asia Energy Supply & Services Co. Ltd
This company supplied a pump to the Myanmar Navy in 2017, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
D S T Business Group Co. Ltd
In 2017-18, the company supplied an engine room ventilation system and accessories, an anchor winch and an F12 PLC industrial computer control card, a shipboard power cable, electrical hardware, a watertight cable sealing system, a navigation lamp, a search light, a signal light, a marine electrical lamp fitting and a steering system to be used by the Myanmar Navy, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
General Machinery Trading Co. Ltd and General Machinery Trading Pte Ltd
General Machinery Trading Company Limited, a port equipment supply company, has provided welding accessories, a welding electrode, panelling materials and packing and joining materials to the Myanmar Navy, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
The purchases were made through its Singapore business unit, General Machinery Trading Private Limited.
Another leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement shows General Machinery Trading Company also supplied a Laser Tracker System for the Myanmar Navy in 2017
The company is the official authorised distributor in Myanmar of a wide range of port equipment from international brands – such as cranes and lifting equipment from Konecranes in Finland, V-belts products from Bando in Japan, a mobile shredder from Metso in Denmark and products from Terex Fuchs in Germany, according to the company website.
Interstellar Ltd
This company is an official sales agent for the import of aviation parts from Ukroboronprom in Ukraine to the Myanmar air force, according to a leaked proposal, and was an online exhibitor at the MAKS 2021 air show in Russia.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
King Royal Technologies Co. Ltd
This company has had contracts with the Myanmar Air Force and the Myanmar army’s Directorate of Signals, and has reportedly been engaged in military research and manufacturing.
It is subject to US Department of Commerce restrictions.
For more details, see JFM’s report and feature on the arms trade with Russia, and a leaked proposal.
Life and Challenge Co. Ltd and LANC Pte Ltd
Life and Challenge Company Limited, a company which has links to the EU, provided an engine room ventilation system and accessories, an anchor winch, a F12 PLC industrial computer control card, and a piping machine and tools for the Myanmar navy, according to leaked Ministry of Defence documents concerning procurement.
In 2018, Life and Challenge Co. Ltd and its partner TBSS, a Singaporean company that specialises in radars and electronic warfare, and training and engineering services, were jointly awarded a contract to design and deliver a radar capability development programme for the Myanmar military officers from the Defence Services Science and Technology Research Centre (DSSTRC), Defence Services Technological Academy (DSTA), Directorate of Signals and Directorate of Defence Industries.
Life and Challenge Co. Ltd has also supplied dozens of items to the DSSTRC through its Singapore business LANC Pte Ltd.
Life and Challenge Co. Ltd’s co-owner Wunna is also director and shareholder of Myanmar Consultancy Company Limited (MCC), a key arms supplier to the Myanmar military.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Lion Zone Co. Ltd
This company was contracted to supply a plating machine and other tools for the Myanmar Navy in 2017.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Machinery & Solutions Co. Ltd
This company supplied spare parts for a MTU12V 331TC 92 marine diesel engine and an engine display unit for the Myanmar Navy in 2017, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Mega Dynamic Co. Ltd and Achiever Marine Service
These two companies have jointly provided items for the Myanmar Navy following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for dozens of marine equipment items including ship wiring cables, navigation and marine electrical fittings, a propulsion system, a stern arrangement, a steering system, a ventilation blower, welding machines, mooring and towing equipment and other accessories, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY
In 2017, Mega Dynamic Co. Ltd also provided a propulsion system, a stern arrangement, a steering system and ventilation blower to Myanmar Navy, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2017-18 FY.
Monday International Co. Ltd
This company supplied an engine room ventilation system and accessories for the Myanmar Navy in 2017, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Myan Shwe Pyi Tractors Ltd
This company sold a propulsion system and stern arrangement to the Myanmar Navy in 2014 and 2017, respectively, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Myanmar Future Science Co. Ltd
This company has procured Elbit drone parts that were sent to the Myanmar military.
For more details, see a proposal leaked to JFM, and reporting in the New York Times.
One Success Co. Ltd
This company was awarded a contract to supply foundry shop accessories to the Myanmar Navy in 2017, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Royal Shune Lei Co. Ltd
The Royal Shune Lei Company Limited has supplied arms and related materiel from Russia and Serbia to the Myanmar military.
See the leaked 2019 proposal involving procurement from Serbia and this feature on the arms trade with Russia.
Shwepoe May Co. Ltd
Shwepoe May Company Limited is run by a former instructor at the Myanmar military’s Defence Services Academy.
The company has supplied rockets and missiles to the military, according to a JFM source.
It has also provided spare parts for BTR-3U armoured personnel carriers to the Commander in Chief (Army) Directorate of Artillery and Armour Corps.
See 2019 proposal leaked to JFM.
Sixth Ocean Ltd & Midway Pte Ltd
Sixth Ocean Limited has procured equipment for the Myanmar military.
The company’s purchases were made through Midway Pte Ltd, a company that was registered in Singapore, but has since been struck off the company registry.
In addition, Sixth Ocean also has links to Allwe, a Russian company which provides parts to the Myanmar military.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Sun & Moon 777
Sun & Moon 777 works closely with the Commander in Chief of the Myanmar Navy, Moe Aung.
The company brokered French Zodiac Milpro inflatable rubber boats to Myawaddy Trading, a subsidiary of the Myanmar military’s conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), in August 2020, for delivery in 2021, according to leaked documents.
The Myanmar Navy is known to be the end user of these boats according to an industry source with knowledge of the transaction.
TBSS Group and TBSS Center for Electrical and Electronics Engineering
TBSS, a sole proprietor company owned by Singapore engineer Lee Kar Heng, has provided equipment, training and support for the Myanmar military to development its radar capabilities, in partnership with Myanmar military broker Life and Challenge Company Limited. This has included the provision of a 9-month radar capability development program for the Defense Services Science and Technology Research Centre (DSSTRC) and Defence Services Technological Academy (DSTA) in 2018. Lee Kar Heng is a former staff of Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency.
TBSS Group has involved its international partners in supplying equipment and training to the Myanmar military, including Keysight Technologies (USA), SkyRadar (Luxembourg/Germany), Dspnor (Norway) and RFBeam (Switzerland).
For details, see JFM’s feature and Straits Times reporting.
Trio Core Distribution Co. Ltd
Trio Core Distribution Company Limited is linked to arms broker Miya Win International.
This company was a business partner to Victorinox and arranged a meeting for Victorinox with the Myanmar military on August 22, 2017, as the military was committing genocide against the Rohingya. It led to the supply of knives with an imprint for the 72nd anniversary of the Myanmar Air Force in 2019.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
True North Co. Ltd
True North is a known arms dealer and the agent of the Indonesian state-owned enterprise, PT Pindad. PT Pindad has exported ammunition to Myanmar. True North is owned by Htoo Htoo Shein Oo, the son of the Myanmar military junta’s planning and finance minister, Win Shein.
For more details, see JFM’s feature.
Trust And Honesty International Co. Ltd / UK Logix Security International Co. Ltd
Aung Min Nyo (also known as Kevin Nyo) and these two companies that he co-owns have provided defence security consultation, services and technology to the Myanmar military, according to JFM sources.
Category C: Brokers of arms and equipment to the Myanmar military, who had business with the Myanmar military from 2015 to 2016, or where dates are not confirmed
Asia Resource Developments Trading Co. Ltd
This company has had contracts with the Myanmar Navy to supply marine items including an engine room ventilation system and accessories, marine diesel gensets, a main switchboard, marine spare parts and an oxygen plant for a naval dockyard, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
Bamar Pte Ltd
Bamar Pte, a Singapore based company owned by Myanmar citizens, has supplied arms and aircraft spare parts for the Myanmar military in 2016.
The items supplied include spare parts for Mi-17 helicopters and 37mm twin barrel AA guns worth millions in US dollars, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement, according to leaked Ministry of Defence documents concerning procurement.
The company has registered an overseas branch office in Yangon, Myanmar.
Eternity Star Co. Ltd and Pollux Marine Pte Ltd
Eternity Star Company Limited and Pollux Marine Private Limited have jointly imported ship wiring cables, marine navigation electrical fittings and a steering system for the Myanmar Navy, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
Both companies are owned by a Myanmar citizen, Ye Linn.
Eternity Star Co. Ltd is the authorised distributor of products from marine brands ESAB, Mercury Marine and Delfin in Myanmar.
Future Gift International Ltd
This company has provided an aviation jet refuelling vehicle for the Myanmar Air Force in 2016, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Lucky Bird Trading Company Limited
A leaked August 2017 Myanmar Air Force letter to the Directorate of Procurement shows that Lucky Bird Co. Ltd attempted to broker EWR 600 and EWR 750 weather radar manufactured by its partner. According to an arms industry source, Lucky Bird Trading has also won IT contracts from the Myanmar military.
Marinetech Limited
A Myanmar military broker with links to France. In July 2017, Marinetech together with a French partner CNIM met with the Myanmar army to negotiate the provision of a modular assault bridge system, according to a leaked letter sent to the Directorate of Procurement.
Mascot Company Limited
The company has supplied communications equipment to the Myanmar army from the South African firm Reutech, according to an industry source.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFMM) reported that Reutech has supplied ground-to-air radio transmitter V/UHF transceivers (Reutech/PAE 3060), according to the Ministry of Defence budget documents.
Moezac Company Limited
A leaked July 2017 Directorate of Procurement letter shows representatives from MoeZac Co., Ltd. is partnered with Russian firm UAZ LLC and met with Directorate of Defence Industries regarding the supply of armoured and other vehicles.
Nanova Company Limited and Nanova Pte Ltd
Nanova Company Limited supplied equipment including pneumatic fenders for the Myanmar Navy.
It has also provided scientific equipment for the Myanmar military’s Defence Services Science and Technology Research Centre (DSSTRC), according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
Since 2014, Nanova has been purchasing Radar Absorbent Paint (RAP) manufactured by Micromag Co., Ltd. for the Myanmar military. According to a brief report, Myanmar Navy representatives travelled to Spain in Feb 2014 regarding Micromag purchases.
Nanova is registered in Myanmar as well as in Singapore as a supplier of medical, scientific and industrial equipment.
It has offices in Yangon, Naypyidaw and Mandalay.
Oro Vittorio Co. Ltd.
This company supplied spare parts for a flight simulator to the Myanmar Air Force in 2016, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Proven Technology Industry Co. Ltd.
This company has supplied thousands of vehicle batteries to the Myanmar military, according to a leakedMinistry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
Pyae Naing Thu Co. Ltd and Xinde Marine Engineering Pte Ltd
Xinde Marine Engineering Private Limited had a joint agreement with Pyae Naing Thu Company Limited to provide items for the Myanmar Navy following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for gyrocompass equipment and stabiliser systems, and an external firefighting system in 2015-16, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
Royal Pyae Phyo Company Limited
Royal Pyae Phyo, a trading and logistics company has involved in supplying the Myanmar military with nitrate from the Thai firm, Thai Nitrate Company, according to an industry source.
According to Royal Pyae Phyo’s website, their partners include the Chinese arms conglomerate AVIC, and the Chinese drone manufacturer Beihang UAS Technology Co. Ltd.
Sea Technology International Ltd and Sea Technology Cooperation Pte Ltd
Sea Technology International Limited is a major supplier of marine communication and navigation equipment in Myanmar.
The company has had multiple contracts with the Myanmar military. It provided items for the Myanmar Navy following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for navigation and other equipment to be installed on landing craft, offshore patrol boats and other naval vessels, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
The company also supplied a Furuno navigation radar to the Myanmar army.
The purchases were made through Sea Technology Cooperation Pte. Ltd, a Singapore branch of Sea Technology.
Shwe Pan Thu Co. Ltd. and Duwon Pte Ltd
These companies have jointly supplied items for the Myanmar Navy following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for anchor chain and accessories and a marine window, according to a Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
Singa International Enterprise Ltd and Royal Lion International Pte Ltd
These companies jointly brokered items for the Myanmar Navy following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for an electric boat crane, firefighting and other equipment, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
The companies have the same directors: Khin Thin Swe and Sein Aung.
The Prime Inya Company Limited
The Prime Inya Company Limited and its partner, Chinese Aerospace Long March International Trade Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of CASC met with the air force commander-in-chief regarding CH-4 armed UAVs in Aug 22, 2017 according to a leaked Myanmar Air Force letter to the Directorate of Procurement. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. CASC has a plant to build CH-4 UAVs in Myanmar, according to the UN Fact-Finding Mission.
The Prime Inya has also been listed as a buyer of ammonium nitrate and sulphur.
Triple Phoenix Co. Ltd. and Triple Phoenix Pte Ltd
Triple Phoenix Company Limited and its Singapore subsidiary Triple Phoenix Private Limited were awarded multiple contracts to supply equipment for the Myanmar military, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for 2015-16 FY.
This has included providing items for the Myanmar Air Force following a successful bid in a Ministry of Defence call for tenders for spare parts for Mi-17 helicopters and main components for MiG-29 aircraft.
These companies have also supplied navigation equipment to be installed on a hospital ship used by the Myanmar Navy and cardiac consumables for the Defence Services Medical Academy.
Some of the purchases were made through a Singapore company, TRD Consultancy Pte Ltd, which has shared the same office and directors with Triple Phoenix Pte Ltd. TRD Consultancy has had an office in Myanmar and has supplied anti-drone guns to the Myanmar Police Force.
Shwe Htee San Trading Co. Ltd. and Shwe Htee San
Shwe Htee San Trading Company Limited, together with its Singapore business, have supplied navigation equipment for the Myanmar Navy to be installed on a naval ship, according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement.
The companies have been struck off the Myanmar and Singapore company registries.
Reliance Products Pte Ltd
Reliance Products Private Limited is linked to Mega Hill General Trading Co. Ltd and has imported hydraulic cranes for the Myanmar navy and equipment for the Defence Services Science and Technology Research Centre (DSSTRC), according to a leaked Ministry of Defence document concerning procurement for the 2015-16 FY.
Call for sanctions
Justice For Myanmar calls for sanctions on the abovementioned category “A” and “B” companies and their directors and shareholders, for their involvement in supplying the Myanmar military.
Category “C” companies and their shareholders and directors should be monitored for any continued business with the Myanmar military. Any ongoing business with the Myanmar military must result in sanctions.
More sanctions are urgently required to prevent the continued flow of arms, equipment and revenue to the Myanmar military, which enable its campaign of terror. Targeted sanctions must capture:
Myanmar and international companies supplying and funding the Myanmar military;
Myanmar and international companies and their directors and shareholders brokering arms, dual-use goods, and funds;
any other companies and individuals that continue to provide the Myanmar military with arms, dual use goods and revenue.
Detailed list of Myanmar military arms broker companies and individuals
JFM has compiled detailed lists identifying Myanmar registered companies and Myanmar linked Singaporean companies involved in supplying the Myanmar military, along with company directors and shareholders, graded according to the abovementioned categories..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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Sub-title:
The toxic rare earth mining industry at the heart of the global green energy transition
Description:
"China has long dominated the world's supply of heavy rare earths, minerals needed to build electric vehicles and wind turbines. Demand for these products is skyrocketing as we rush to meet climate goals, but there is a problem at the root of the supply chain.
The processes used to extract heavy rare earths are highly polluting, ravaging landscapes and poisoning waterways. As concerns over the environmental toll of extraction have grown in China over the past decade, more and more domestic mines have been shut down. Yet global demand is growing rapidly, and China remains the world's largest processor.
But with many of its own mines now closed, where is China's supply of these minerals coming from?
A six-month investigation by Global Witness followed the outsourcing of this highly toxic industry across the Chinese border into Myanmar.
There, heavy rare earth mining has exploded so quickly that within just a few years a mountainous corner of Myanmar, known as Kachin Special Region 1, has become the world's largest source of supply. This region is a semi-autonomous territory run by militias that are affiliated to Myanmar's brutal military regime. The mining is illegal under Myanmar's laws, and hardly exists on paper.
Yet the damage that global demand for products manufactured by international companies is fuelling in this remote, lawless part of the world is all too real for the communities who are now risking their lives to defend their land.
LEACHING MYANMAR'S MOUNTAINS
For Zau*, a local worker, the mining boom is a rare chance to make money. He is paid 3,800 yuan ($600) in cash every month, around twice the average salary in Myanmar.
He works in the shadows, at a mine near the Chinese border, for a company that has no permits. On paper, Sin Kyaing Company is owned by a local militia leader called Lagwi Bawm Lang. But like other Burmese companies in the rare earth mining industry, it is really a front for illegal investment by Chinese businesspeople.
Zau's job is to remove vegetation and drill holes into the mountains. Then ammonium sulphate solution is injected into the holes, effectively liquefying the earth. Once the chemicals have percolated through the mountainside, the solution is drained into bright blue collection pools, where minerals are precipitated out in a process called in-situ leaching.
After this mountain has been leached, Zau and his colleagues will abandon the contaminated site, moving to the next place and starting all over again.
“In my opinion, the mountains will definitely collapse one day,” Zau told Global Witness, alluding to the risk of landslides.
Despite being paid well, he is worried about the harm the chemicals are causing to the water supply, and therefore to the health of local people.
“People from the surrounding villages are facing difficulties getting drinking water,” he said. “Even healthy people like us feel dizzy if we inhale these odours for a long time.”
The mountains beneath Zau's feet are rich in ores of dysprosium and terbium, the two most valuable of the heavy rare earth metals. Described by an industry expert as “basically irreplaceable”, we rely on them for a whole range of clean energy and smart tech products – from the smartphone you may be using to read this story, to your energy-conserving home electronics.
But their most important use, representing 90% of their value, is in permanent magnets, which are needed to make motors and generators for electric vehicles and wind turbines.
The stakes are high: it would be almost impossible to build a low-carbon future without these products, and many of them currently do not work well without heavy rare earths..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Witness" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Minerals and Mining - Burma (general articles and analyses), Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Burma's economic relations with China
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Description:
"The Australian Embassy in Yangon has spent US$525,473 on accommodation, food and other services at the military linked LOTTE Hotel and LOTTE Serviced Apartment since February 1, 2021.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade disclosed the expenses to Justice For Myanmar under the Freedom of Information Act. The Department denied a request for information regarding the lease arrangements of Australia’s Myanmar Embassy and ambassador’s residence.
The Australian Embassy’s expenses at LOTTE Hotel and Serviced Apartment range from US$31.50 for chocolate cream cake, to a monthly fee of US$7,100 for a luxury lakeview apartment.
LOTTE Hotel and Serviced Apartment are built on land leased from the Office of the Quartermaster General of the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Army, under a build-operate-transfer agreement. The Office of the Quartermaster General is sanctioned by the US, UK and Canada.
LOTTE Hotel investors pay the Office of the Quartermaster General an annual lease fee of US$1.874 million, in addition to a one-time land use premium of US$13.51 million, according to Myanmar Investment Commission records released by Distributed Denial of Secrets. The military will take control of the hotel and apartment complex at the end of the maximum 70-year lease, providing it with a lucrative future asset.
Australia’s business at LOTTE Hotel and Serviced Apartment goes against the recommendations of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which recommended against all business with the Myanmar military, its conglomerates and business relationships, including real estate rental. The Fact-Finding Mission found that real estate is “a major revenue stream” of the Myanmar military.
Australia’s continuing business at LOTTE Hotel also undermines a mass boycott of military businesses in response to the military’s coup attempt. LOTTE Hotel is listed in the popular boycott app, Way Way Nay and businesses holding meetings at LOTTE Hotel have been publicly criticised. Last month, a Hong Kong government funded networking event at LOTTE Hotel was cancelled after public criticism over the location, including from the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG), the legitimate government with a mandate from the 2020 election.
In a June statement, NUG accused LOTTE Hotel of "knowingly aiding and abetting the atrocities of a junta that is widely held responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against its own people."
LOTTE Hotel’s EU-sanctioned investor
The main investor behind the hotel and serviced apartment project is the South Korean corporation POSCO International, with a 69.3% stake. POSCO International is a publicly listed subsidiary of the steel giant POSCO. LOTTE Corporation, which is also South Korean, owns 15.7% of the project. POSCO and LOTTE’s investment is channelled through a Singapore company, POSCO International Global Development Pte Ltd. The remaining 15% is owned by the project’s local partner, Spirit Paradise Services (formerly IGE-Sinphyushin).
Spirit Paradise Services is owned by Ne Aung, a Myanmar crony and the brother of the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Navy, Moe Aung. Ne Aung’s father, Aung Thaung, was a minister in the former military junta and a notorious hardliner who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 for “perpetuating violence, oppression, and corruption”. Aung Thaung died in 2015.
Ne Aung’s IGE conglomerate was sanctioned by the European Union in February 2022.
In its sanctions designation, the EU stated, “IGE provided the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] with financial support in 2017 in connection to the Rakhine ‘clearance operations’ and thus contributed to serious human rights violations in 2017 against the Rohingya population. IGE has also provided the Tatmadaw with indirect financial support by taking financial participations in several projects and companies linked to the Tatmadaw and its conglomerates. Therefore, it provides support to and benefits from the Tatmadaw.”
In an apparent attempt to evade sanctions, IGE Sinphyushin was restructured and renamed Spirit Paradise Services in April. International Group of Entrepreneur Company Limited, which is the entity named in the EU sanctions designation, transferred its shares to Myanma National Energy Company Limited. IGE group’s CEO, Than Win Swe, and executive director, Thazin Aung, left the IGE Sinphyushin board.
The two new sole directors of Spirit Paradise Services, Lwin Yadanar Oo and Thaw Zinn Lynn, as well as the new sole shareholder of Myanmar National Energy, Paing Zin, do not appear to be linked to any historical companies on Myanmar’s company registry. It is likely that they are acting as proxies of IGE to hide the company’s beneficial ownership.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “It is appalling that Australia is spending taxpayer’s money at the military linked LOTTE Hotel, ignoring the recommendations of the UN Fact-Finding Mission to end business with the Myanmar military.
“LOTTE Hotel finances the Myanmar Army, paying rent to the quartermaster general’s office, which buys the military’s bullets and bombs used in its indiscriminate attacks against the people of Myanmar. The Australian Embassy must have known this.
“Since the military’s attempted coup, the junta has murdered more than 2,000 people and arrested over 14,000, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners. The junta is carrying out indiscriminate air strikes and shelling as part of a campaign of terror that has displaced an estimated 783,400 people.
“We demand Foreign Minister Penny Wong immediately end Australia’s business with LOTTE Hotel and all other companies linked to the Myanmar military, which it should have done long ago. Instead of sanctioning the military’s business interests, Australia is helping them profit.
“We reiterate the call of 688 Burma/Myanmar and international organisations for Penny Wong to impose targeted sanctions on the Myanmar military junta and its business interests to cut the revenue flows that fund the junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, and call for her urgent action.
“We call on businesses, individuals, governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations to boycott LOTTE Hotel and all other businesses that are owned by or finance the Myanmar military.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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196.63 KB 194.75 KB
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Description:
"Paris, July 20, 2022 – On January 21, 2022, TotalEnergies announced its decision to withdraw from the Yadana field and from gas transportation company MGTC in Myanmar, both as shareholder and as operator. In a context of continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in Myanmar, this decision resulted from the assessment that TotalEnergies was no longer able to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country, and was not able to meet the expectations of stakeholders who were asking to stop the revenues going to the Burmese state through the state-owned company MOGE from the Yadana field production. In accordance with the contractual 6-month notice period, this withdrawal becomes effective on this 20 July 2022. This withdrawal was made in compliance with the European sanctions put in place in February 2022.
Since January 2022, TotalEnergies has continued to act as a responsible operator and has undertaken due diligence to ensure its withdrawal in a responsible manner towards its stakeholders in Myanmar, including its employees as well as the long-standing supported local communities. As such, TotalEnergies worked closely with PTTEP, Thailand's national company, which was appointed as the new operator by the project partners, to guarantee the continuity and safety of production at the Yadana gas field while ensuring an orderly transfer of operations.
All our employees in Myanmar were offered employment with the new operator, under the same job and salary conditions, thus securing their professional future. In addition, a complementary support agreement, through a contribution to a dedicated fund, was also set up between TotalEnergies and PTTEP to continue the historic economic development program with local communities in the MGTC pipeline area.
As TotalEnergies definitively withdraws from Myanmar, our Company repeats its condemnation of the abuses and human rights violations taking place in this country and reaffirms its support to the people of Myanmar and its hope for a swift return to peace and rule of law.
About TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people..."
Source/publisher:
TotalEnergies
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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pdf
Size:
180.93 KB
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Sub-title:
US Sanctions Urgently Needed on Billions in Oil and Gas Revenue
Description:
"(Paris) – Myanmar’s abusive junta will obtain an increased stake in the country’s largest oil and gas field when the French company TotalEnergies withdraws from Myanmar on July 20, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. TotalEnergies’ shares will be divided proportionally among the remaining three partners – US-based Chevron, Thai-based PTTEP, and the junta-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
TotalEnergies in January announced its plans to leave Myanmar in six months due to a deteriorating human rights situation that “no longer allows TotalEnergies to make a sufficiently positive contribution in the country.” The company has operated the Yadana gas project since the 1990s in partnership with Chevron and PTTEP.
“Total’s transfer of ownership shares to a military-controlled company will further enrich the junta at the expense of human rights,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. “Other energy companies looking to exit should make sure they do so responsibly, without contributing to the junta’s coffers.”
Since the February 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar, the junta has imposed a brutal nationwide crackdown on all opposition. The junta’s widespread and systematic abuses, including mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Security forces have killed over 2,000 people and arbitrarily arrested over 14,000.
In March, the oil and gas project partners approved PTTEP to take over as the operator of Yadana. The division of TotalEnergies’ 31.2 percent stake in both the gas field and pipeline will leave Chevron with 41.1 percent interest, PTTEP with 37.1 percent, and MOGE with 21.8 percent. Chevron also announced plans to withdraw and has indicated its intention to sell its stake to PTTEP, though few details about its exit have been made public.
Natural gas projects in Myanmar generate over US$1 billion in foreign revenue for the junta annually, its single largest source of foreign currency revenue. The money is transmitted in US dollars to MOGE and other military-controlled bank accounts in foreign countries in the form of fees, taxes, royalties, and revenues from the export of natural gas, most of which travels by pipeline to Thailand or China.
On February 21, the European Union imposed new sanctions on junta-controlled businesses including MOGE, the first government entity to do so. However, it also issued a license with ambiguous language that seems to allow exiting companies to relinquish or transfer their shares to MOGE.
Other companies including Woodside, Mitsubishi, Petronas, and ENEOS have announced plans in recent months to withdraw at least in part from operations in Myanmar. Petronas is being replaced as operator of the Yetagun field by Gulf Petroleum Myanmar, according to reports by Myanmar Now and Justice for Myanmar.
When companies exit from Myanmar, they should place their existing shares or property rights into trust or escrow, including shares of exploration or development projects, production, or pipeline transportation ventures, to ensure the revenues from those shares do not benefit the military. If exiting companies determine that they must sell or transfer their shares to another business entity, they should ensure that those entities will respect international sanctions and follow international standards on business and human rights.
Adopting these measures would be consistent with companies’ responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which state that “appropriate action” in cases in which business activities are enabling rights abuses includes consideration of “whether terminating the relationship with the entity itself would have adverse human rights consequences.”
Concerned governments should join the EU in sanctioning MOGE while specifying that transfers of ownership to the junta are prohibited. The US in particular is in a key position to impose sanctions since payments in the gas sector – even those handled by non-US companies – are typically made in US dollars and require the involvement of correspondent US or EU banks to finalize, or “settle,” large dollar or Euro transactions. Additional sanctions would also help ensure that the junta is not able to evade the new EU sanctions in other jurisdictions.
PTTEP and South Korea’s POSCO, the two main energy companies remaining in Myanmar, should signal their support for such measures. The largest gas revenue payments to junta-controlled accounts are made via PTT, PTTEP’s parent company, which purchases about 80 percent of Myanmar’s exported natural gas from Yadana as well as the Zawtika gas field, which it operates itself. In April, PTTEP announced it was withdrawing from the nearly depleted Yetagun field. POSCO runs the second largest project, Shwe.
Human Rights Watch has previously written to all of these companies and their shareholders, urging them to support sanctions on gas revenues. Human Rights Watch has also urged other governments including the US, UK, Australia, and Japan to adopt the EU’s approach and sanction Myanmar’s military-owned companies such as MOGE.
“The US and other governments should follow the EU’s lead by urgently imposing measures that will cut the junta off from its millions in gas revenue before companies indifferent to rights take over the payment flows,” Jeannerod said. “Junta leaders need to face economic consequences for the atrocities they are carrying out across Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-19
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"Indian firm Sandeep Metalcraft Private Limited is supplying fuzes to the Myanmar military, directly supporting its attacks against the people of Myanmar that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Indian firm’s ongoing business with the Myanmar military is exposed in a Justice For Myanmar investigation.
Fuzes are devices that cause detonation in bombs and artillery.
The most recent shipment from Sandeep Metalcraft was on March 25, 2022, consisting of 3,000 fuzes, according to records from the Panjiva trade database. This followed a shipment of 1,000 fuzes in 2020 and 5 fuzes in 2019.
While the records of two later shipments did not specify the type of fuzes, the 2019 shipment was of time mechanical fuze 447, designed for 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles.
The Myanmar military has used 84mm Carl Gustaf rounds during attacks in ethnic areas.
Saab Group, a Swedish corporation that manufactures Carl Gustaf launchers and munitions, did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar regarding licencing of fuzes to India’s Ordnance Factory Board and the Sandeep Metalcraft shipments to Myanmar.
The fuzes were sent to the private Myanmar military supplier, Creative Exploration Ltd, formerly named mySpace International.
Creative Exploration is a major broker of arms and equipment for the Myanmar Police Force.
The company is owned by Dr Kyaw Kyaw Htun and his wife, Zar Phyu Tin Soe, the daughter of a former military officer who was Myanmar’s ambassador to Russia. Kyaw Kyaw Htun is a former military officer and graduate of the Defence Services Technological Academy.
Since 2020, Creative Exploration has also imported US digital forensics technology from the US company, Oxygen Forensics, and a digital forensics examination station from the US firm Sirichie, both via Indian suppliers.
Justice For Myanmar calls on India to impose an immediate arms embargo on the Myanmar military.
Sweden must suspend exports and licence production agreements with Indian arms manufacturers for launchers and munitions, and investigate if any of the Sandeep Metalcraft shipments to Myanmar contain Swedish technology.
Fellow members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), Australia, Japan and the USA, must use their influence to stop the flow of arms from India to the Myanmar military.
Sanctions must urgently be imposed on Creative Exploration, Sandeep Metalcraft, their owners and all other Myanmar military arms suppliers.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “India’s supply of fuzes to the Myanmar military is inexcusable.
“India is directly supporting the junta’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians by allowing the export of key components in the very weapons the military is using to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The junta has used airstrikes and shelling to bomb homes and villages, kill and maim people and forcibly displace an estimated 690,000, in a nationwide campaign of terror.
“As a democratic country and a neighbour of Myanmar, we appeal to the Indian government to stand with the people of Myanmar, not war criminals and their illegitimate junta.
“We call on India to impose an immediate arms embargo on the Myanmar military and end complicity in the junta’s atrocity crimes.
“It is deeply concerning that a Swedish company may be tied to the provision of weapons that are killing innocent people in Myanmar
“We demand Sweden immediately suspend exports and licencing of launchers and munitions until India stops the flow of arms to the terrorist junta.”
More information:
Read our investigation, India supplying fuzes to Myanmar military, deepening complicity in its atrocity crimes..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-15
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"Kirin Holdings has announced a share buyback with their joint ventures, Myanmar Brewery and the smaller Mandalay Brewery, which will see the company exit Myanmar and place their business partner, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), in control.
The deal will ensure the continued operations of the business, providing ongoing revenue for the Myanmar military through MEHL.
Kirin holds 51% of Myanmar Brewery, to MEHL’s 49%.
According to Kirin’s statement, the share transfer price is approximately 22.4 billion JPY (324 billion MMK or 163.9 million USD).
In November 2020, Kirin suspended dividend payments to MEHL. The company has not disclosed what will happen to the accrued dividends and the company’s bank balance when it exits Myanmar.
Civil society in Myanmar, Japan and across the world have called on Kirin to responsibly end their business with MEHL. Since the military’s illegal coup attempt, a mass boycott of Myanmar Beer has had a major impact on the company’s profits.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: "Kirin’s decision to hand over control of Myanmar Brewery and Mandalay Brewery to military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited is a windfall for the Myanmar military and will ensure a continued stream of revenue to finance atrocity crimes.
"Kirin appears to be excusing this irresponsible exit by claiming it is in the best interests of workers.
"The responsible move is to deny funds to the terrorist Myanmar military and remedy negative impacts to workers through compensation.
"Instead, Kirin has chosen to prioritise their bottom line over their human rights responsibilities and the lives of the people of Myanmar, who are subjected to daily arrest, murder, torture, the burning of homes and villages, indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling by the Myanmar military.
“Kirin’s irresponsible exit comes as Myanmar is in crisis, as the junta wages a campaign of terror against the Myanmar people, aided and abetted by Kirin’s business with MEHL.
"Kirin must reverse this deplorable decision or be held accountable for their complicity in the military’s international crimes.
“We demand Kirin disclose their human rights due diligence, and the fate of the dividends that they had been withholding from MEHL.
"Kirin’s share transfer involves their Singapore subsidiary, Kirin Holdings Singapore Pte. Singapore should prevent transactions through their financial system that benefit the Myanmar military, including Kirin’s US-sanctioned business partner, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited."..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-30
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Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"Justice For Myanmar welcomes the UK’s second round of sanctions targeting arms dealers.
The UK has designated three Russian arms suppliers and three Myanmar arms brokers who supply the Myanmar Air Force and are complicit in the junta’s atrocity crimes.
The Myanmar companies are:
Myanmar New Era Trading Company Limited has procured Mi-17 parts from Russia since the military’s attempted coup. It is linked to International Gateways Group.
Sky Aviator Company Limited is a Myanmar miliary arms broker that has procured equipment from Russia and Ukraine since the attempted coup, including YAK-130 support equipment from Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), refitted turbojet engines from United Engine Corporation and engine parts from Rosoboronexport and Motor Sich. According to a proposal leaked to Justice For Myanmar, Sky Aviator represents JSC Russian Helicopters in Myanmar.
Synpex Shwe Company Limited procured helicopter parts for the Myanmar military from Sins Avia Trading House (CNS Aviation) since the attempted coup. The company is also a supplier of the Directorate of Defence Industries.
The Russian companies are:
JSC Gorizont manufactures the Camcopter S-100 UAV under licence from Austria’s Schiebel Corporation. The Myanmar Navy and Air Force have both procured Camcopter S-100 UAVs. Following the Myanmar military’s attempted coup, Gorizont shipped UAV parts to Miya Win International Limited, a Myanmar military arms broker. These included items procured from Schiebel in Austria, suggesting an attempt to circumvent EU sanctions. Miya Win International was sanctioned by the UK on March 25.
Sins Avia Trading House LLC (CNS Aviation) exported helicopter parts to the Myanmar military arms broker Synpex Shwe Company Limited in March 2021.
Ural Avia LLC specialises in the supply of aviation parts and repair, and has sold Mi-17 parts to the Myanmar military arms broker Dynasty International Company Limited since the attempted coup, according to records from ImportGenius. Dynasty International and its director, Dr Aung Moe Myint, were sanctioned by the UK on March 25.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “We welcome the UK’s targeting of arms suppliers, which enable the junta’s campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar.
"The military’s continued war crimes and crimes against humanity are enabled by their access to arms, equipment, jet fuel and revenue.
"The military’s supply chains must be systematically targeted with sanctions to stop their international crimes.
"We call for urgent and coordinated international action against the Myanmar military’s economic interests and business relationships, including from regional democracies Australia, India, Japan and South Korea which have so far failed to act."..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-16
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"Mobile operator Mytel, trading under the company Telecom International Myanmar Company Limited, is a key pillar in the Myanmar military’s business network providing revenue, technology and surveillance capabilities.
Telecom International Myanmar shareholders are the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation, Vietnam Ministry of National Defence-owned Viettel Global Investment and Myanmar National Telecom Holdings.
A Justice For Myanmar investigation based on leaked documents found that Mytel has aggressively recruited members of the Myanmar military through the “Banner of Victory” campaign, in which Mytel staff worked with base commanders to sign up military personnel with customised phone numbers that include an individual’s military ID number.
State officials and business leaders were also incentivised to sign up to Mytel through generous promotions, including ones that previously targeted the State Counsellor and ministers.
As Justice For Myanmar has documented, Mytel works in partnership with the Myanmar Army’s Directorate of Signals and builds infrastructure on military bases.
The company’s biggest shareholder, Viettel, is a high-tech arms manufacturer that is involved in tech transfer with the Myanmar military.
According to an analysis of a Myanmar Investment Commission proposal, released by Distributed Denial of Secrets, the Myanmar military is projected to earn over US$700 million in ten years from Mytel, which will finance continued war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “There is now extensive evidence of the complicity of Mytel in the Myanmar military’s international crimes.
“Mytel is putting the lives of Myanmar people at risk through the provision of revenue, technology and surveillance capabilities for the Myanmar military, which is a terrorist organisation.
“The people of Myanmar have taken a clear stand by boycotting Mytel and all other military products. It is time for international governments to hear the voices of Myanmar and designate Telecom International Myanmar for sanctions.
“More than 1,900 people have been murdered by the Myanmar military since the attempted coup, including children, and over 11,000 are languishing in detention, where torture is routine, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
“The Myanmar military’s crimes are enabled by their business interests and action is needed now to stop the flow of funds to the military junta and its conglomerates.
“The Myanmar military cartel must be dismantled.”
Mytel provides the Myanmar military with dangerous surveillance capabilities over their own troops.
Since the illegal attempted military coup, courageous people’s soldiers and police have joined the civil disobedience movement, taking huge personal risk to leave the terrorist Myanmar military.
The Myanmar military can track the communications and location of these soldiers and police.
Justice For Myanmar urges military personnel joining the Civil Disobedience Movement to not discuss plans on the phone and destroy their SIM cards before defecting.
More information:
See Justice For Myanmar’s web feature on customer recruitment and surveillance, Leaking military secrets for profit
See Justice For Myanmar’s web feature, Boycott and coup attempt cost Mytel USD$24.9 million in three months
See Justice For Myanmar’s web feature, How hundreds of millions of dollars from Mytel subscribers will flow to military generals
See Justice For Myanmar’s report, Nodes of Corruption, Lines of Abuse: How Mytel, Viettel and a global network of businesses support the international crimes of the Myanmar military..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-14
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Sub-title:
Land Lease Payments May Finance Human Rights Violations by the Myanmar Military
Description:
"Eight civil society organizations that are deeply concerned about the business relationship that Japanese companies have with the Myanmar military sent a letter dated May 24, 2022 to 101 corporate investors holding shares in Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd. or Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. Land lease payments made by the two companies in connection with a real estate development project in Yangon (commonly known as “Y Complex”), estimated to be about 2 million USD per year, and will be a source of funding for the Myanmar military.
The Myanmar military for decades has committed grave human rights violations and atrocity crimes with total impunity, and on February 1, 2021, began an attempted coup. The civil society organizations have pointed out to Tokyo Tatemono and Daiwa House on numerous occasions that they may be complicit in grave human rights violations perpetrated by the military and urged them to act in accordance with their own human rights policies and international standards. However, neither company has officially announced specific plans to avoid the risk of its activities in Myanmar abetting grave human rights violations and international crimes by the Myanmar military.
The letter requests the corporate investors in Tokyo Tatemono and Daiwa House to promptly engage with the two companies to urge them to take measures to ensure that their business activities do not benefit the Myanmar military. The letter further asks the corporate investors to consider divestment if the companies do not take sufficient measures..."
Source/publisher:
Mekong Watch, Friends of the Earth Japan, Justice For Myanmar, Network Against Japan Arms Trade, ayus:Network of Buddhists Volunteers on International Cooperation, Japan International Volunteer Center, Pacific Asia Resource Center, Human Right Now
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights Defenders, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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"May 23, 2022, Washington, D.C.–This week, Chevron’s shareholders will vote on a resolution that challenges the fossil fuel company’s partnership with the Myanmar (Burma) military. The shareholders that proposed the resolution are calling on the company to use arbitration proceedings as part of a responsible divestment strategy instead of treating the junta as a recognized government and legitimate business partner.
Since seizing power in a coup in February 2021, the Myanmar military has destabilized the region, pushed millions into a humanitarian crisis, and murdered more than 1,800 people, while more than 10,000 are currently detained. Profits from the Yadana offshore gas project, in which Chevron holds a major interest, are still funding the junta and fueling its human rights atrocities, despite Chevron’s announcing plans to withdraw from the country earlier this year.
EarthRights International Director of Strategy and Campaigns Keith Slack issued the following statement:
“Revenues from Myanmar’s offshore gas projects are the military junta’s largest source of foreign revenue, funding its atrocities. Chevron’s and other oil companies’ payments go to an illegal, criminal junta that has taken control of government bank accounts and is actively misappropriating state assets in order to fuel human rights abuses.
“EarthRights urges Chevron’s shareholders to approve a resolution on doing business with governments that are complicit in human rights abuses. Multiple Chevron shareholders have acknowledged that while its contracts are with the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the entity is nothing more than a government department; we urge Chevron to acknowledge that the junta is not a recognized government. Doing so enables it to rely on contractual obligations to divert revenues from the junta as part of a planned exit from Myanmar. It would also require Chevron to respect demands from Myanmar civil society not to bring in a new operator for the Yadana gas project if it will collude with the junta. As proposed by its own shareholders, the company should initiate international arbitration rather than persisting with its strategy of ignoring Myanmar’s National Unity Government and siding with a genocidal junta.
“Chevron’s irresponsible actions in Myanmar mirror a pattern we’ve seen worldwide. In 2008, EarthRights sued Chevron for human rights abuses at a protest site in Nigeria. In 2005, Chevron acquired Unocal, a company with a long track record of human rights abuses. Chevron has the moral, legal, and financial obligation to avoid fueling genocide and crimes against humanity. Since the coup began last year, human rights organizations worldwide have urged companies, including Chevron, to stop providing financial support to the Myanmar military.
“To actually live up to its tagline of the ‘Human Energy Company,’ Chevron needs to walk its talk. Its long history of undermining human and environmental rights and its support for the Myanmar junta shows us that it’s actually the ‘Anti-Human Energy Company.’ Chevron shareholders now have an opportunity and an obligation to stop fueling human rights abuses in Myanmar.” ..."
Source/publisher:
EarthRights International
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-23
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2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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"Lebanon’s M1 Group has transferred control of Telenor Myanmar to the Myanmar military linked Shwe Byain Phyu conglomerate on Thursday, May 12, completing Telenor Group’s sale of the mobile network.
The sale has violated UK, EU and Norwegian sanctions due to the inclusion of lawful interception technology.
In the final stage of the sale, the Cayman Islands registered M1 Infrastructure Ltd transferred 310 shares in Investcom Pte Ltd, a Singapore holding company, to Shwe Byain Phyu Telecom Company Limited, according to corporate records.
Investcom Pte Ltd owns 100% of Telenor Myanmar Limited, largely through redeemable preference shares.
Shwe Byain Phyu Telecom Company Limited is a Myanmar registered company, fully owned by Shwe Byain Phyu Company Limited.
As a result of the share transfer, Shwe Byain Phyu owns 80% of Telenor Myanmar, up from its earlier 49% stake
M1 Group is owned by the family of the current Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati.
Sanctions violations
As part of the sale, M1 Group transferred a German-made Utimaco lawful interception gateway (LIG) to Shwe Byain Phyu, in breach of UK sanctions on Myanmar, which are in force in the Cayman Islands as a British Overseas Territory.
The Utimaco LIG was delivered to Myanmar and installed by Telenor in 2018. Telenor Group then transferred the LIG to M1 Group in March 2022, violating Norwegian sanctions.
When activated, the LIG will give the Myanmar military junta, a terrorist organisation, capabilities to monitor calls and SMS made over the Telenor Myanmar network in real time.
The latest transaction between M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu follows the first stage of the sale from Telenor Group to an M1 Group subsidiary registered in Cyprus, in violation of EU sanctions due to the transfer of the LIG.
The sale has exposed the historical call data of more than 18 million people to the junta, which it can use to identify, locate, detain, torture and kill Myanmar people. This may make Telenor Group and the Norwegian government complicit in crimes against humanity.
Telenor Group failed to do human rights due diligence on their ultimate buyer, Shwe Byain Phyu, in breach of their responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
Telenor Myanmar’s new players
Shwe Byain Phyu chair Thein Win Zaw is the chairperson of the Telenor Myanmar Limited board, and his son, Win Paing Kyaw, is the deputy CEO. Thein Win Zaw’s wife, Tin Latt Min, also sits on the board. Other Telenor Myanmar board members are Hicham Ramadan and Rana Shatila of M1 Group.
Telenor Myanmar’s new CEO, Muhammad Ziaullah Siddiqui, sits on the board of Investcom Pte Lte, along with Rana Shatila, Thein Win Zaw, Win Paing Kyaw and Benjamin Szeto Yu Hwei.
From 2007-2010, Siddiqui was CEO of the telecommunications company MTN Afghanistan, according to his Linkedin page, at a time when the company was accused of paying protection money to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
From 2010 to 2016, Siddiqui was CEO of MTN Sudan, providing a source of revenue to the genocidal al-Bashir regime.
MTN is a South African publicly listed company that acquired M1 Group’s Investcom in 2006. As part of the takeover, the Mikati family gained a 10% stake in MTN.
Justice For Myanmar calls on the UK, Cypriot and Norwegian governments to urgently investigate Telenor Group and M1 Group for violating sanctions on Myanmar.
We call on the Oslo Stock Exchange, which lists Telenor, to investigate the legality of Telenor’s Myanmar sale under Norwegian and EU law.
We call on Singapore to investigate the use of its territory by Telenor Group, M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu in violation of UK, EU and Norwegian sanctions, and to take concrete steps against Singapore registered businesses that are complicit in the Myanmar military’s international crimes.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “It is reprehensible that Telenor Group and the Norwegian government have completed the sale of Telenor Myanmar to Shwe Byain Phyu Group, wilfully ignoring sanctions regulations and their human rights responsibilities.
"The junta has weaponised telecommunications in its campaign of terror, and Telenor Myanmar is now part of its arsenal.
"We call on the UK, Norway and Cyprus to investigate sanctions breaches from the transfer of lawful interception technology from Telenor to M1 Group, and from M1 Group to Shwe Byain Phyu, and ensure accountability.
"The fact that this transaction has taken place in Singapore yet again shows how its financial system is being exploited by the Myanmar military and their associates. Singapore must take concrete action to end the use of its territory to finance and arm the Myanmar military.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-16
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"The Institute for Economics & Peace responds to an open letter regarding its recent Global Terrorism report.
We have recently been contacted regarding concerns arising from Myanmar’s listing in the 2022 Global Terrorism Index. This letter is a response to your article dated 11 May 2022, titled ‘An Open Letter to the Institute for Economics & Peace.’
IEP welcomes feedback and we are open to receiving critiques of our research. This is demonstrated by our actions in the amendment of the report, and the public statement issued prior to receiving the open letter: Statement regarding Myanmar & the Global Terrorism Index – Vision of Humanity.
Having now received the open letter, we feel several of the characterisations deserve the right of reply.
IEP is an internationally respected not-for-profit organisation. Our aim is to understand the drivers and the economic benefits of peace, and our research is highly regarded by many of the leading institutions in the world. IEP’s work on peace is cited in thousands of courses, and we train many thousands each month through our online academies and in-person workshops.
Throughout IEP’s history, we have been engaged in both developmental aid and peacebuilding projects in Myanmar. IEP and its key personnel have been involved in Myanmar for over twenty years, and currently has several projects with which it is actively engaged in, including water, education and peacebuilding training.
The Global Terrorism Index
One critique of the 2022 Global Terrorism Index has been the perceived failure to address acts perpetrated by the junta. The Global Terrorism Index, since its inception, has always excluded acts of state-sponsored terror. IEP covers state-sponsored terror in its other reports.
We acknowledge that the classification of acts of terrorism is a difficult and sensitive topic. There are a variety of perceptions toward the definition of terrorism. Many acts that could be considered legitimate acts of war can become unclear, depending upon the circumstances of a particular attack. For example, attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq on US soldiers are considered terrorism under certain circumstances by sources other than IEP.
IEP’s approach to this is to draw on credible data sources, and to align with the coding of these sources. In the case of specific attacks mentioned in the open letter, these were codified as terror attacks at the time of writing. However, after constructive discussions from proactive members of the community, the decision was made to remove these from the report.
IEP’s response
When the initial concerns were raised, IEP engaged with a number of external experts who constructively worked with us to assess the issues and decide on an appropriate action. None of these individuals signed the open letter. It is from these discussions that we took the decision to amend the Global Terrorism Index and issue a public statement.
It was only after we had taken this action that we received the open letter. Given our willingness to engage, we are disappointed that we were not contacted before the letter was written. At the point of sharing, our response was public and should have been acknowledged.
Given this, we feel that the open letter process could have been conducted in a far less peaceful way. What is particularly disappointing is that out of the hundred signatories, only one individual contacted IEP prior to the publishing of the letter.
In conclusion
The issues surrounding Myanmar are deeply sensitive. We carefully considered the concerns raised and redacted Myanmar from the 2022 Global Terrorism Index.
We fail to see how this open letter has contributed towards constructive dialogue. We should surely all be working towards the same goal around these issues, and seeking to create meaningful change in the world..."
Source/publisher:
"Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-16
[field_licence]
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Individual Documents
Category:
Economy and social justice (global), The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"Activists are urging US President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), which provides a financial lifeline to Myanmar’s junta. The European Union imposed sanctions on the firm in February.
More than 637 domestic organizations, including protest committees, labor unions, women’s rights and educational groups and over 220,000 individuals signed an open letter to Biden, according to the Blood Money Campaign (BMC), which lobbies to financially isolate the junta.
The BMC called on Biden to listen to Myanmar’s people and sanction MOGE.
“The United States, it is time to stop protecting democracy only with words,” said Ko Ye, a BMC spokesman.
The group reported that the junta seized around US$1.5 billion in gas revenue from state bank accounts after the 2021 coup to fund genocide and murder.
“We don’t ask the US to provide weapons. We only ask the US to stop paying the fascist regime for natural resources,” Ko Ye said.
MOGE has been a lifeline for military governments for decades and an estimated 50 percent of foreign currency came from natural gas and Myanmar earned around $1.5 billion from oil and gas in the 2020-21 financial year, according to pre-coup forecasts.
The campaign urged the Biden administration to stop gas revenues reaching the junta by working with allies in Thailand and South Korea to divert income to accounts held until the civilian National Unity Government is recognized.
It said gas companies and banks which traded with the junta should face money-laundering charges. It said the junta-controlled Myanma Foreign Trade Bank should face sanctions for money laundering.
International oil and gas firms like Total, Chevron and Woodside left Myanmar after the coup but the junta’s investment minister Aung Naing Oo said only 10 percent of Myanmar’s oil and gas investment came from the three firms and their withdrawal did not impact the economy. China, the largest source, provides around 27 percent of oil and gas investment.
Human rights organizations are urging Total not to pay the junta about $250 million it owes Myanmar.
Since the coup in February last year, the regime has killed more than 1,800 people and it uses airstrikes, artillery, arson attacks, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests against civilians..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, Sanctions, Oil and gas, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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"To the Institute of Economics and Peace:
Dear Steve Killelea, Board of Directors,
As scholars and analysts who specialise in politics and society in Myanmar, we express deep concern over your recent Global Terrorism Index report, in which the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) depicts anti-junta resistance in Myanmar as “terrorism”. Indeed, we strongly disagree with your overall depiction of events in Myanmar, which is analytically flawed, morally bankrupt, and politically problematic.
According to your report, the “country with the largest total increases in deaths from terrorism was Myanmar, where the number of people killed rose from 24 in 2020 to 521 in 2021… Anti-junta armed groups were responsible for over half of terrorism deaths in Myanmar in 2021. The majority of deaths occurred during attacks targeting government and military personnel.”
The examples that you cite for what you call “deaths from terrorism” are attacks on military personnel by anti-junta forces, such as:
“Gunmen killed 40 soldiers in the Sagaing region. No group had claimed responsibility, but local media said that anti-junta groups were responsible for the attack“
or a “bomb targeting a military convoy of eight vehicles killed thirty soldiers in the Magway region. The Yesagyo Peoples’ Defence Force, an anti-junta armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack.”
This is analytically flawed. Defining terrorism as targeting military targets contradicts most academic definitions of terrorism, including your own definition on p.6 of the Global Terrorism Index, where you define terrorism as a ‘the systematic threat or use of violence whether for or in opposition to established authority, with the intention of communicating a political, religious or ideological message to a group larger than the victim group, by generating fear and so altering (or attempting to alter) the behaviour of the larger group. Your report consequently exempts “acts of warfare, either irregular or conventional”.
While there is a lack of definite agreement on the phenomenon of terrorism, most academic literature, indeed, differentiates between “guerrilla” and “terrorist” violence for good reason. Guerrillas seek to effectuate political change by targeting the state and its agents. They commonly do so by means of irregular warfare (precisely as in the above examples provided in your report).
Terrorists, in contrast, intentionally target civilians in order to achieve their goals. The direct targets of terrorism (civilians) serve as “message generators” in the process of “violence-based communication” with the main target of terrorism (e.g., the state or society). Their aim is to spark terror amongst civilian populations. Your report cites no such incidents in Myanmar.
This is also why guerrillas can abide by International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In fact, the IHL regulating non-international armed conflict – by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, as well as Additional Protocol II – renders armed forces as legitimate military targets (terrorist violence stands, by definition, in contradiction of IHL because of its targeting of civilians).
Attacks on soldiers by non-state resistance forces in Myanmar are thus clearly within the bounds of the laws of war as long as they follow the principles of distinction and proportionality. Nothing in your report suggests that they do not. Even if one included attacks on police forces, the situation in Myanmar remains firmly within these legal boundaries. This is because police forces in Myanmar are under direct control of the military, regularly act in support of military troops, and frequently use battlefield-grade weaponry, such as assault rifles. Anti-junta forces do not target civilians in order to generate fear and alter the behavior of a larger group. They target their state opponent directly.
But presenting non-state armed resistance forces that engage in irregular warfare against legitimate military targets as terrorists is not only analytically flawed. It is also morally bankrupt given a context of state terrorism, i.e., a situation where the state itself uses indiscriminate violence against civilian populations in order to punish and intimidate its opponents. A truthful report of the biggest terrorist attacks in Myanmar in the past year, would thus not be the killing of 40 soldiers in Sagaing or 30 soldiers in Magwai, as cited in your report.
Instead, the biggest terrorist attacks in the last year were the massacres in Hlaing Tharyar in March 2021 and Bago, where security forces killed more than 65 and 80 unarmed civilians during peaceful protests respectively. And, this is just the tip of the iceberg of state terrorism in Myanmar, where security forces have committed countless atrocities for decades, including genocide, and continue doing so, for instance, through systematically destroying civilian settlements across Myanmar, in what the United Nations special envoy for human rights in Myanmar, rightly describes as “a campaign of terror”.
Notwithstanding these disturbing shortcomings, international think tanks like yours produce “facts” about the world, breaking down complex politics into easily digestible pieces of information for political stakeholders, including policymakers. This is why the distortion of reality in your report ultimately becomes politically problematic. It serves to delegitimize the legitimate and lawful actions of anti-junta guerrillas in Myanmar as unlawful terrorism. In doing so, your report mobilizes the same narrative as the military junta in Myanmar. In effect – and in contradiction to its claim of being non-partisan – the IEP is legitimizing and normalizing a terror regime that has illegally toppled a democratically elected government and couped itself to power.
We thus demand that IEP retracts or corrects the sections of your report related to Myanmar, bringing the depicted empirical reality into compliance with academic definitions of terrorism, including your own. Moreover, we demand a public statement that includes an apology to the anti-junta forces in Myanmar for your wrongful depiction of their legitimate and lawful resistance.
Sincerely,
Dr David Brenner, Lecturer, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex
Georg Bauer, PhD candidate, Department of History, University of Vienna
Dr Hans Steinmüller, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, LSE
Dr Laurence Cox, Associate Professor, National University of Ireland Maynooth
Dr. Charlie Thame, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University
Dr John Buchanan, Associate, Asia Center, Harvard University
Dr Ronan Lee, Doctoral Prize Fellow, Loughborough University London
Dr. Su Lin Lewis, Associate Professor, University of Bristol
Dr. Jonathan Saha, Associate Professor, University of Durham
Dr Chika Watanabe, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester
Dr Alexandre Pelletier, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Laval University
Dr Jenny Hedström, Associate Professor, Swedish Defence University
Dr Matthew J Walton, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Dr Elisabeth Olivius, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Umeå University
Professor Bridget Anderson, University of Bristol
Associate Professor Anthony Ware, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Deakin University, Australia
Dr. Gerard McCarthy, Research Fellow, National University of Singapore Asia Research Institute
Htet Min Lwin, PhD student, Department of Humanities, York University, Toronto
Dr Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia
Dr Morten B. Pedersen, Senior Lecturer, International Politics, University of New South Wales Canberra
Christopher Lamb, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Melbourne; President, Australia Myanmar Institute
Dr Joseph Lo Bianco, Emeritus Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne
Dr Charlotte Galloway, Honorary Associate Professor, Australian National University, Canberra
Dr Patrick Meehan, Department of Development Studies, SOAS University of London
Kim Jolliffe, independent researcher focused on security and conflict in Myanmar
Dr Kevin Woods, Research Fellow, East-West Center, Hawai’i
Dr Susan Banki, Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney
Dr Nick Cheesman, Associate Professor, Australian National University
Dr Kate Crosby, Professor of Buddhist Studies, King’s College, London
Luke James Corbin, PhD Researcher, Australian National University
Dr Kristina Kironska, Senior Researcher, Palacky University Olomouc
Dr. Mike McGovern, Professor, University of Michigan
Dr. Elliott Prasse-Freeman, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
Kei Nemoto, Professor, Sophia University, Tokyo
Adam Czarnota, Professor, Wroclaw University, Wroclaw & Honorary Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney
Dr. Leedom Lefferts, Carolina Asia Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer, Head of the Working Group “Social and Political Anthropology”, University of Konstanz. Germany
Dominique Dillabough-Lefebvre, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, LSE
Chu May Paing, PhD Researcher, University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Sai Latt, Research Affiliate, York University, Toronto, Canada, Chiangmai University, Thailand
Anders Kirstein Moeller, PhD Student, Department of Geography, NUS
Dr. Nicola Tannenbaum, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Tharaphi Than, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University
Dr Tin Mar Oo, MSc Student, Post Graduate School of Politics and Science, University of Edinburgh
Kristian Stokke, Professor, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo
Dr Peter Bjorklund, Independent post-doc Researcher, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Dr Michael Edwards, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge
Dr Sharon Bell, Independent Researcher, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Dr Leanne M. Kelly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Deakin University, Melbourne
Dr Johanna Garnett, Lecturer in Peace Studies, University of New England, Armidale
Dr Bill Vistarini, Australian National University (Retired)
Dr Anne Décobert, Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Matt Schissler, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Godwin Yidana, PhD Researcher in Peace Studies, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.
Professor Melissa Crouch, Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Dr Renaud Egreteau, Associate Professor, Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong
Dorothy Mason, Researcher, Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University
Dr. Roger Lee Huang, Lecturer in Counterterrorism and Political Violence, Macquarie University
Dr. Wen-Chin Chang, Research Fellow, Academia Sinica
Moe Thuzar, Doctoral Candidate, History Department, National University of Singapore
Dr Yuri Takahashi, Lecturer in Burmese, Australian National University
Aung Kaung Myat, MPhil Candidate, University of Hong Kong
Peter Suante, PhD Researcher, The Department of Education, The University of Hong Kong
Dr R.J. May, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University
Dr. Lisa Brooten, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Media, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA
Dr Michael Breen, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, The University of Melbourne
Dr Vicki-Ann Ware, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Australia
Mr. Tual Sawn Khai, PhD researcher in Sociology and Social Policy, School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Professor Bill Pritchard, Professor in Human Geography, The University of Sydney
Jack Jenkins Hill, PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, University College London (UCL)
David Scott Mathieson, Independent analyst and author specializing on Burma
Dr Cecile Medail, Visiting Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University
Dr Elisabeth Jean Wood, Co-Director of Agrarian Studies and Professor of Political Science, International and Area Studies, Yale University
Dr. Rosalie Metro, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, University of Missouri-Columbia
Dr Tomas Cole, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University
Dr Dominique Caouette, Professor of Political Science, Université de Montréal
Prof. David I. Steinberg, Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies Emeritus, Georgetown University
James F. Cerretani, Goldsmiths, University of London, Anthropology
Dr Elin Bjarnegård, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University
Martin Smith, author and independent analyst on conflict in Myanmar
Siew Han Yeo, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto
Dr Anna Plunket, Lecturer in International Relations, King’s College London
Dr Jasnea Sarma, Lecturer in Political Geography, University of Zurich
Minn Tent Bo, London based Independent Consultant focused on human rights, democracy and elections in Myanmar
Leigh Mitchell, London-based Independent Consultant focused on governance, development finance/effectiveness and investment in Myanmar
Samia C. Akhter-Khan, PhD candidate, Department of Health Service & Population Research, King’s College London
Ambassador Kelley Currie (ret.)
Dr Andrew Fagan, Director of Human Rights Centre, at the University of Essex
Nora Wuttke, PhD Researcher, SOAS University of London
Catherine Morris, Independent researcher, and Associate of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria
Prof. James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University
Professor Lee Jones, Professor of Political Economy and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London
Dr Liyun Wendy Choo, Professional Teaching Fellow, University of Auckland
Dr Sally Bamford, Alumni, Australian National University
Dr. Francesco Buscemi, Research Fellow, Einaudi Foundation
Dr Justine Chambers, Postdoctoral Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies
Professor Kirsten McConnachie, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of East Anglia
Professor Martin Krygier AM, Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Ponpavi Sangsuradej, PhD Researcher. Faculty of History. SOAS, University of London
Alex Moodie, PhD Candidate, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University
Vishnu Prasad, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography & Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Paul Taylor, Technical Adviser and Independent Myanmar Researcher
Dr. Stephen Campbell, Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University
Dr. Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung, Professor, Political Science Department, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Thawng Za Pum, Doctoral student, Institute of Political Science, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg
Francesca Chiu, PhD Researcher, School of International Development, University of East Anglia
Oren Samet, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Greg Tyrosvoutis, EdD Candidate, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, University of Toronto
Richard Roewer, Research Fellow, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, DPhil Student, University of Oxford
Dr Kerstin Duell, Goethe University Frankfurt
Khin Thet San, Research Fellow, South Asia Institute, SOAS, University of London
Dr Stefano Ruzza, Associate Professor, Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin..."
Source/publisher:
"Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Economy and social justice (global), Human Rights and international relations, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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"Through ongoing defence and military cooperation, it is likely that ASEAN is aiding and abetting the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes, a Justice For Myanmar investigation has concluded.
ASEAN’s defence program, detailed by Justice For Myanmar, has allowed the Myanmar military to participate in meetings, training, intelligence exchanges, arms production, R&D, cyber security, and education, under the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) umbrella.
The Myanmar military’s involvement in ADMM has supported it to build its capabilities, access arms, find sources of revenue, seek international legitimacy, develop content for propaganda purposes, and forge bilateral military ties with ASEAN members and regional powers.
ASEAN has been engaging with the Myanmar military, knowing that it has repeatedly violated international human rights and humanitarian law.
Since the Myanmar military began an illegal attempted coup on February 1, 2021, ASEAN has allowed it to join defence sector activities, including as co-chair of the bloc’s ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Counter Terrorism with the Russian regime.
As the region’s key intergovernmental organisation, ASEAN could help prevent the Myanmar military’s commission of atrocity crimes. Yet it has not only repeatedly failed to take action, but is complicit in those crimes by providing support and legitimacy to the Myanmar military.
The central role ASEAN plays in the Indo-Pacific region has also impeded coordinated international action to stop the Myanmar military’s international crimes, and facilitated the illegitimate junta’s defence engagement with regional democracies Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the USA, through ADMM-Plus.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “ASEAN has utterly failed to uphold international human rights and humanitarian law.
“ASEAN knows full well that the Myanmar military committed genocide against the Rohingya, continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, and staged an attempted coup.
“ASEAN cannot plead ignorance about the crimes that the military is committing, its undermining of democracy and brutal attack on the people of Myanmar.
“Yet its response has been to provide practical assistance, encouragement and support to the military as it terrorises the people of Myanmar.
“ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus has not only utterly failed to resolve Myanmar crisis but enabled the bloc’s status quo of complicity with the terrorist junta who created the crisis.
“Justice For Myanmar calls on ASEAN to immediately change course, exclude the illegal Myanmar and work with the NUG to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
“ADMM-Plus countries must stop hiding behind ASEAN and take immediate steps to end the bloc’s complicity in the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes.
“As the US hosts the US-ASEAN Special Summit, it must commit to end its multilateral engagement with the terrorist junta and demand ASEAN stop aiding and abetting the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes.
“We call on the US to boycott ASEAN events that include the illegal junta, including the defence maritime security working group that it co-chairs.”
Justice For Myanmar calls for the following urgent action:
ASEAN
Exclude the Myanmar military junta from all meetings and activities.
Recognise the National Unity Government as the legitimate government of Myanmar, and work with it to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
Take concrete action to end the Myanmar military’s violence against the Myanmar people.
Create an ASEAN sanctions framework, and encourage ASEAN members to impose an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the Myanmar military and its business interests.
Cooperate with UN Member States to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar and to refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court through the UN Security Council.
ADMM-Plus countries (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the USA):
Call on ASEAN to exclude the Myanmar military junta from all meetings and activities, and end the Myanmar military’s violence against the Myanmar people.
Recognise and support the National Unity Government as the legitimate government of Myanmar, and work with it to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
Urge ASEAN to recognise the National Unity Government and work with it to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
Boycott ASEAN meetings and activities that include the Myanmar military junta.
Impose an arms embargo and targeted sanctions against the Myanmar military and its business interests.
Cooperate with UN Member States to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar and to refer the Myanmar situation to the International Criminal Court through the UN Security Council..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, ASEAN-Burma relations
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"Russian companies supplying arms to the Burmese military should face sanctions.
Russia is probably the biggest supplier of arms to the Burmese military. Russia has also hosted several military delegations since the attempted coup last year, organised trade and economic delegations, and has fiercely defended the military at the United Nations Security Council.
“At the same time as Russia says the international community should not interfere in the internal affairs of Burma, Russia is interfering more than any western country ever has,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK.
Where other countries have intervened at the request of the people of Burma to promote human rights and democracy, Russia has intervened on the side of the military to help them commit human rights violations and deny democracy to the people of Burma.
Activists from Burma have told us that just because Russia is unlikely to stop arming the Burma military does not mean they shouldn’t be called out for what they are doing.
Putin is complicit in the violations of international law committed by the Burmese military, as they are using equipment Russia has sold to them. Russia is in receipt of money stolen from the people of Burma to pay for those weapons.
“The same Russian jets bombing Ukraine have been sold to the Burmese military and are used for bombing civilians,” said Anna Roberts. “Just as Russian companies have been sanctioned following the invasion of Ukraine, Russian companies involved in the supply of arms to the Burmese military should also face sanctions.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-04
[field_licence]
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Individual Documents
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Description:
"The head of Russian truck giant Kamaz visited Myanmar last week for talks with the terrorist Myanmar military junta to produce trucks in Myanmar, and will finalise an agreement by June.
Kamaz was part of a delegation from Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, led by its president, Rustam Minnikhanov.
Russian investment will further aid and abet the junta’s atrocity crimes.
Kamaz General Manager, Sergey Kogogin, joined talks with junta head and war criminal Min Aung Hlaing, and the junta’s investment minister, Aung Naing Oo.
Sergey Kogogin has been recently sanctioned by the UK and Australia, while Kamaz has been sanctioned by Australia and the EU, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian military used Kamaz trucks to invade Ukraine.
Kamaz is a supplier of the Myanmar military. It transferred seven military trucks to Myanmar in 2020 and the company manufactures the trucks used to mount the Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile system, which the Myanmar military ordered in January 2021.
Junta head Min Aung Hlaing visited Kamaz during a trip to Tatarstan in June 2021, with a delegation of more than forty people.
Kamaz’s biggest shareholder is Russia’s state-owned arms conglomerate Rostec.
Germany’s Mercedes-Benz owns 15% of the company, on behalf of Daimler Truck.
Daimler Truck has a joint venture with Kamaz, but froze cooperation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As investors, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck must clarify the steps they have taken to end Kamaz’ business with the Myanmar military, according to their human rights responsibilities, following the Rohingya genocide and the military’s coup attempt.
Tatarstan’s President Minnikhanov has a longstanding relationship with Min Aung Hlaing, and is promoting multiple business-links with the Myanmar military.
His April trip included representatives from Rostec subsidiary Kazan Helicopters, which supplies helicopters to the Myanmar Air Force; engineering company Ker-Holding, which is involved in the Pang Pet steel plant, a project of military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation; and naval shipbuilder JSC Zelenodolsk Plant.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Minnikhanov and Kogogin’s visit to Myanmar show that the Russian regime’s links to the terrorist Myanmar junta are deepening.
“The visit comes as sanctions are rolled out against Russian businesses following the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while the international response to the military’s coup attempt remains weak and uncoordinated.
“While it is positive that Australia has sanctioned Kamaz and Sergey Kogogin, they have not imposed any sanctions in response to the military’s illegal coup attempt.
“Developing business ties will provide future revenue and embolden the Russian regime, the Myanmar junta and their business associates.
“Increased access to military vehicles and truck manufacturing capabilities will aid the Myanmar military’s campaign of terror, as it commits mass killings, torture, rape, forced displacement and the destruction of whole villages.
“We demand urgent international action against the Myanmar military junta and its business interests, including targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo.
“Russia is committing atrocities in Ukraine, while also aiding and abetting the Myanmar military junta’s atrocities.
“We call on the international community to impose further sanctions on Russia for its complicity with the Myanmar military’s international crimes against the people of Myanmar, including against Kamaz, Rustam Minnikhanov and Sergey Kogogin.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-02
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy
Language:
Format :
pdf
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139.08 KB
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"Two years since the launch of Justice For Myanmar, the movement to dismantle the military cartel has gained momentum. The people are winning.
Shop-owners and consumers are boycotting military products, hitting the military’s bottom-line and sending a strong message that resistance to the terrorist junta is everywhere.
The Myanmar Beer, Red Ruby and Mytel brands have been irreparably harmed, and will be forever remembered as a resource that war criminals use to enrich themselves and finance the bombs and bullets they use to murder the people of Myanmar.
Activists and journalists in Myanmar and around the world are tirelessly exposing nodes in the Myanmar military’s business network, pressuring companies, and their investors, to cut ties.
International companies divesting from the military cartel over the last year include Kirin Holdings, the Japanese beer giant partnered with military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL); Adani Ports, which is building a container terminal on land leased from Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC); Emerging Towns and Cities Singapore, operator of the Golden City development on land leased from the Myanmar Army’s Quartermaster General; and the oil majors TotalEnergies, Chevron, ENEOS Holdings and Mitsubishi Corporation are withdrawing from gas projects that make up the junta’s biggest source of foreign revenue. But many companies remain.
While these withdrawals are a victory for the Myanmar people’s struggle against the terrorist junta, more work is needed to pressure companies to responsibly disengage, in consultation with the National Unity Government, and immediately cease all payments to military-controlled entities.
In the last year, investors have listened to the voices of the people of Myanmar and divested from businesses that continue to enable the junta’s campaign of terror. For instance, Australia’s Future Fund has divested from arms manufacturer AVIC, while Nordea Asset Management and the Dutch fund PFZW have divested from Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics. Denmark’s P Plus has divested from KOGAS and Lotte Corporation and is continuing to engage with other businesses linked to the terrorist junta.
Targeted sanctions have also expanded in Canada, the EU, UK and USA to cover crony conglomerates and arms dealers, including Htoo Group, IGE, Kyaw Thaung Group, Dynasty International, International Gateways Group, Myanmar Chemical & Machinery and Miya Win. After a global campaign, the EU sanctioned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
More must be done to deny the terrorist junta revenue and arms, and dismantle the military cartel. But the will of the people will overcome the junta’s campaign of terror.
We will continue to struggle as part of a global movement for a federal democracy in Myanmar, to end the systemic causes of inequality, corruption, violence and atrocity crimes, until the cartel is dismantled..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-28
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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pdf pdf
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153.44 KB 116.99 KB
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"Star Sapphire Group of Companies, a crony conglomerate linked to the family of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, plays a key role in brokering arms deals for the Myanmar military and operates businesses with the Myanmar military and its conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL).
Star Sapphire Group is controlled by Dr Tun Min Latt and his wife Dr Win Min Soe, who have a longstanding partnership with the prominent Thai businessperson Upakit Pachariyangkun, now a senator.
Leaked documents show that Tun Min Latt has brokered arms deals with major Israeli and Chinese companies, including Elbit Systems, Israel Shipyards, Israel Aerospace Industries and NORINCO, aiding and abetting the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes against the people of Myanmar.
Tun Min Latt has built his business through decades-long corrupt deals with the Myanmar military.
Tun Min Latt is the son of former air force lieutenant colonel Khin Maung Latt, who was director-general of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism under the former military junta.
In 1999, in his role as director-general of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism under the former military junta, Tun Min Latt’s father, Lt Col Khin Maung Latt, signed a deal to build Allure Resort, an illegal casino in Tachilek, a town bordering Thailand.
Tun Min Latt was a beneficiary of the deal, developing and operating the casino with Upakit Pachariyangkun.
In November 2017, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, under the National League for Democracy, handed the casino to the Myanmar Army’s Office of the Quartermaster General, diverting the state’s 6% share of profits away from the Union Budget, hidden from parliamentary scrutiny.
The Allure Resort, and its connection to Star Sapphire’s wider network of business interests, raise serious money laundering and illicit financing concerns.
In 2013, under the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) government, Tun Min Latt signed a build-operate-transfer deal to develop Hotel Dawei, on land owned by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Lease payments continue to provide a source of revenue to the junta’s home affairs ministry, which is responsible for the Myanmar Police Force.
Since the military’s February 2021 coup attempt, the Myanmar Polce Force has committed atrocity crimes, including deliberate killings and torture of democracy activists.
In ethnic areas of south-eastern Myanmar, Star Sapphire subsidiaries have operated mines under profit sharing arrangement with the military since 2001, helping to fund the military’s grave human rights violations and destroying the environment.
One of Star Sapphire’s mining companies, Royal Mawtaung Mining (formerly Star Thiri Investment), was co-founded by Khin Thiri Thet Mon, the daughter of junta leader and war criminal Min Aung Hlaing. No public information was found regarding its activities.
In the energy sector, Star Sapphire Group’s Myanmar Business Consultant Group is the local partner of the Hong Kong-listed company VPower Group and the Chinese state-owned firm China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) in a liquified natural gas project involving MEHL.
Myanmar Business Consultant Group channels funds to MEHL for the land and will transfer the facility to MEHL at the end of the lease, providing the military with a lucrative future asset.
In Tanintharyi Region, Star Sapphire is developing a 200 MW combined cycle power plant with United Power of Asia, a Thai publicly listed company associated with Tun Min Latt and Upakit Pachariyangkun.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Tun Min Latt and his associates have spent decades enriching themselves through the Myanmar military’s systemic corruption.
“They have provided the military with both revenue and arms that have fuelled atrocity crimes against the people of Myanmar, and are therefore complicit in those crimes.
“The military junta is a terrorist organisation that continues to commit international crimes with total impunity, including deliberate killings, indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling, torture, arbitrary detention and rape.
“Urgent targeted sanctions must now be imposed against Dr Tun Min Latt, Star Sapphire Group of Companies and their directors and shareholders.
“Tun Min Latt has used Thailand as a base for illicit business activities, including operating an illegal casino with Upakit Pachariyangkun and the Myanmar army, and banking with Siam Commercial Bank. This must stop.
“As a senator, Upakit Pachariyangkun's business dealings with Tun Min Latt and the Myanmar military require public scrutiny.
“We urge Thai civil society to take action and ensure Upakit is held accountable for his corrupt business dealings and complicity in the Myanmar military’s international crimes.
“Tun Min Latt's use of Thailand and Singapore for his business with the Myanmar military is yet another case of ASEAN's failed five-point consensus, one year on, continuing to enable military-linked business.
“ASEAN’s failed “consensus” has only served to block and delay effective action from the UN and international community, while conflicts of interest within ASEAN governments embolden the junta to continue its terror campaign against the people.
“The international community must stop hiding behind ASEAN and impose targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo to block the flow of arms and funds to the terrorist junta, and to support the Myanmar people's Spring Revolution.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-26
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Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"On March 9, 2022, human rights advocacy groups Inclusive Development International (IDI) and
ALTSEAN-Burma published a report titled “The Myanmar ESG Files: How ‘responsible investment’ is
enabling a military dictatorship.” The report documents how hundreds of funds carrying the ESG
(Environmental, Social and Governance) label hold at least $13.4 billion worth of shares in 33
corporations linked with the Myanmar military.
According to the report, the 33 companies including Japanese companies have armed and funded the
Myanmar military. Data compiled by IDI show that ESG-labeled funds continued to hold shares in these
companies even after the genocide against the Rohingya in 2017 and the crackdown following last
year’s coup. Mekong Watch reiterates its concern over these Japanese companies continuing their
businesses in Myanmar despite the risk of providing financial support to the Myanmar military's
international crimes and grave human rights violations, including murder, arbitrary detention, sexual
violence, forced disappearances, and torture.
The following Japanese companies are listed in the report. The description of each company is drawn
from the report unless otherwise noted.
Daiwa House Industry
A Daiwa House Industry subsidiary, Fujita Corporation, entered into a real estate joint venture
to develop a project called the Y Complex in Myanmar. Rent payments for this project flows to
the Quartermaster General, which oversees procurement for the Myanmar military. In an email
response to Inclusive Development International, Daiwa House Industry did not dispute these
findings, but said that it had suspended development of the project on the day of the coup.
KDDI Corp
KDDI Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation founded a telecommunication subsidiary in
Myanmar which jointly operates the state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications
(MPT). MPT collaborates with the military’s domestic surveillance program, according to a 2022
U.S. State Department report. That surveillance program allows the military to search and seize
people’s belongings and intercept phone data without a warrant.
Kirin Holdings
Kirin Holdings jointly owns Myanmar Brewery with the military-controlled Myanmar Economic
Holdings Limited. In addition, according to the 2019 U.N. fact-finding report, Kirin Holdings Pte
Ltd., provided financial support to the military for “clearance operations” against the Rohingya.
Marubeni Group
According to the Burma Campaign UK, the company is involved in the development of the
Shweli 3 dam in Northern Shan State, which is in a conflict zone and is opposed by local
residents. Marubeni is also a developer of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone. Marubeni
remains on the Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List.
Sumitomo Corp
Sumitomo Corporation and KDDI Corporation, founded a telecommunication subsidiary in
Myanmar which jointly operates the state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications
(MPT). MPT collaborates with the military’s domestic surveillance program, according to a 2022
U.S. State Department report. That surveillance program allows the military to search and seize
people’s belongings and intercept phone data without a warrant.
* Note by Mekong Watch: Sumitomo Corporation is also a developer of the Thilawa Special
Economic Zone along with Marubeni.
Tokyo Tatemono
Tokyo Tatemono entered into a real estate joint venture to develop a project called the Y
Complex in Myanmar. Rent payments for this project flows to the Quartermaster General, which
oversees procurement for the Myanmar military. In an email response to Inclusive Development
International, Tokyo Tatemono said that it did not believe its money was flowing to the military
and that it had not paid any fees since the coup.
Toshiba Corp
According to the Burma Campaign UK, a subsidiary supplies turbines for the controversial
Upper Yeywa dam in Shan State. Security forces protecting the investment allegedly committed
serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and torture. Toshiba remains on
the Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List.
In addition to the seven companies above, we have pointed out that Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Gas
Exploration (a part of the ENEOS Group), Yokogawa Bridge Corporation (wholly-owned subsidiary of
Yokogawa Bridge Holdings), and Mitsubishi Corporation have ties to the Myanmar military. JX and
Mitsubishi have shares in the Yetagun gas field which is an important source of revenue for the military.
Yokogawa Bridge is working in cooperation with the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic
Corporation (MEC) on the Bago River Bridge Construction project, which is backed by Japan’s Official
Development Assistance. Further, in addition to the Yetagun gas project, Mitsubishi Corporation is a
developer of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone along with Marubeni and Sumitomo, two of the
Japanese companies listed in the report by IDI and Altsean. In terms of ESG investing, ENEOS,
Yokogawa Electric Corporation (major shareholder of Yokogawa Bridge Holdings), and Mitsubishi are
listed in the “FTSE Blossom Japan Index” created by FTSE Russell, which is one of the ESG indexes
for Japanese companies adopted by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF).
ESG investing is supposed to encourage corporate respect for human rights, but it is clear that in
Myanmar, investment by ESG-labeled funds has little to do with how much consideration corporations
are actually giving to human rights. Yuka Kiguchi, Executive Director of Mekong Watch, stated: "ESG
investing is becoming increasingly popular in Japan, but not enough analysis is being done on what
exactly such investment is supporting. Regarding companies operating in Myanmar, individual projects
should be examined to ensure that funds do not flow to the military and that human rights and
environmental impacts are avoided.”..."
Source/publisher:
Mekong Watch
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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Human Rights and international relations, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"India must also stop Rohingya refugee deportations
As Boris Johnson arrives in India for a trade promotion visit, Burma Campaign UK called on the Prime Minister to call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop arms sales to the Burmese military, and to end deportations of Rohingya refugees.
India has been a longstanding supplier of arms and military equipment to the Burmese military, and was listed as an arms supplier in a recent report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur.
United Nations investigators have concluded that the Burmese military have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Countries supplying arms to the Burmese military are complicit in these crimes.
Since the attempted military coup on 1st February 2021, more than 1,700 people have been killed, more than 13,000 arrested and more than 550,000 people forced to flee their homes.
India abstained on a UN General Assembly Resolution last year condemning the military coup in February 2021. India has continued to promote business with the Burmese military and refuses to impose an arms embargo.
Hasina Begum, a Rohingya refugee registered with the UNHCR, was deported by the Indian government in March, after being held in detention for a year. Her husband and three children remain in India.
“Modi supplies arms to the Burmese military knowing that they are likely to be used against civilians,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Boris Johnson must call on Modi to stop arming the Burmese military, and to stop deporting Rohingya refugees.”
Several Indian companies are on the ‘Dirty List’ published by Burma Campaign UK, including Tata Group, which has supplied vehicles to the Burmese military. In the UK Tata is best known for its Tetley brand of tea..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, India-Burma relations
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"On January 18, 2022, we sent a letter to 125 major institutional investors holding shares in four Japanese companies that continue to finance four problematic projects in Myanmar. The four Japanese companies are ENEOS Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, and Mitsubishi Corporation. Because the four projects may be financially linked to the Myanmar military, the letter asked the investors to engage with the four companies to ensure that the companies do not provide any revenue to the Myanmar military, which would finance its international crimes and grave violations of human rights, including murder, persecution, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, forced disappearance, and torture.
Following this letter, to date we have received substantive responses from 13 investors, three of which stated that they engaged with one or more of the four companies after receiving our letter. Further, two other investors stated that they were already engaging with companies that were not included in our letter but regarding Myanmar.
Some European investors actively asked for further information and our view in order to engage with the companies. On the other hand, Japanese investors, with one exception, sent us feedback that did not correspond to our request, such as an explanation of the investor’s human rights policy. They also did not disclose details about their engagement with the companies, including whether they were engaging at all.
The four companies are involved in four projects in Myanmar: Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) development, Yetagun gas project, Landmark Project (Yoma Central Project), and Thilawa Area Port Terminal Operation Project.
Regarding the Yetagun gas project, Mitsubishi Corporation and ENEOS indicated through media reports after we sent our letter to investors that they are planning to withdraw from the project. However, we will continue to demand that the two companies take every measure to disengage from the project in a way that ensures that funds will not flow to the Myanmar military, and that they take responsibility for the decommissioning of the gas field, which is expected to be depleted in the near future.
The Thilawa SEZ Management Committee has a 10% stake in the Thilawa SEZ Development Project, and there is a possibility that a part of the dividend payments may flow to the Myanmar military. After the attempted coup, the military arrested and detained the chairperson of the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee and appointed a new chairperson. There are concerns that military involvement in the entire project may increase. The Japanese government has explained that the dividend payments are not being made for now and that the funds are being reinvested in the project, but it is unclear how long this measure can be taken.
The land for the Landmark Project (Yoma Central Project) is subleased from the state-run Myanma Railways. Although construction has been suspended, the military is in effective control of the Ministry of Rail Transportation which controls Myanma Railways, and there are concerns whether it is possible to ensure that the land lease payments do not flow to the Myanmar military.
Regarding the Thilawa Area Port Terminal Operation Project, because the military effectively controls relevant government ministries, it is not possible to reliably prevent payments under the concession contract with the Myanma Port Authority (MPA), such as usage fees, from flowing to the military.
In Myanmar, violence and human rights violations by the Myanmar military show no sign of stopping, and the number of victims of the military’s campaign of terror is increasing by the day. We call on investors to further engage with the four Japanese companies, and if the investee companies do not take steps to prevent the flow of revenue to the Myanmar military, to consider divestment..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-20
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Other Special Economic Zones, Burma's economic relations with Japan, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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Sub-title:
New measure barring local possession of foreign currency threatens to alienate the few foreign investors left in the benighted nation
Description:
"After a year of political, social and economic self-destruction, Myanmar’s coup-installed junta appears now to be committing financial suicide.
On April 3, Myanmar’s central bank issued a directive requiring all Myanmar citizens to change their foreign currency holdings and transmittances from overseas into Myanmar kyats at state-licensed banks. The directive, published in state media and branded by critics as a desperate money grab, said the transfer must be done within “one working day.”
It is still unclear how the crude measure will be enforced and implemented but follow-up guidance has said that US dollars must be changed at a rate of 1,850 kyats to the greenback, yielding the central bank a windfall on the exchange at the prevailing market rate of 2,015 kyats to the dollar.
Other currencies will be calculated at similar, most likely unfavorable, rates dictated by the central bank. According to the World Bank, Myanmar’s foreign reserves stood at a mere US$7.8 billion as of December 2020, just over a month before the February 2021 coup and the last reliable public data on the country’s reserve position.
Myanmar’s foreign debt is estimated at between $10 and $11 billion. Western sanctions imposed in punitive response to the military’s seizure of power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected administration have targeted the military’s key economic interests and certain top personages.
According to the central bank’s first statement on the new measures, all transfers of foreign currency “must be carried out through [authorized] banks with the permission of the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee.”
All foreign currency account holders will also be forced to convert holdings acquired before April 3 into kyats, with a vague option to apply for an exemption to the new rules. It was also announced that some foreign currency may be kept in approved banks following approval by relevant authorities, including the Myanmar Investment Commission.
The foreign investment community is understandably up in arms over the surprise and draconian order.
On April 4, the Japanese Embassy sent a letter to the junta saying “Japanese companies operating in Myanmar will face serious challenges in following the new regulation, which will cause difficulties in continuing their businesses in the country. It will also be detrimental to the function of the Embassy of Japan and other official organizations.”
Two days later, the Singaporean Embassy issued an almost identical statement that merely changed “Japanese companies” to “Singapore companies.” Both embassies requested exemptions for companies from their respective countries, which are among Myanmar’s top providers of foreign investment.
On April 8, a dozen business groups — among them the French Myanmar Chamber of Commerce, AustCham Myanmar, EuroCham Myanmar, the British Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, and the German Myanmar Business Chamber — issued a joint statement saying that the new foreign currency rule “needlessly lowers the living standards of the Myanmar people, halts foreign business activity, stops the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI), and creates trade tensions with other countries.”
Restriction on the use of foreign currencies, the statement noted, “disconnects Myanmar from the global economy and global financial system.”
According to well-placed sources in Yangon, not even local banks seem to know what the new rules actually mean, how they will be enforced by military authorities, and what will happen if the banks are deemed to have violated them.
Analysts and observers believe there are three main reasons behind what many see as a desperate move to gain access to foreign currency at a time the local economy has nearly collapsed due to the military’s February 2021 coup and the nationwide unrest that has followed.
The first and most obvious motivation stems from the fact the junta has nearly depleted its foreign reserves and desperately needs a way to earn, or in this instance, take foreign currency to avoid defaulting on foreign debts.
Another reason may be to control, and possibly strangle, money flows from foreign donors and exiled groups to anti-junta activists and civil society groups inside the country. The new measure will effectively make it illegal to hold foreign funds, making it easier for authorities to track and check transfers to such groups.
Only entities registered with authorities will be allowed to receive funds from abroad — and then that money would in any case have to be changed into kyats unless they have acquired an exemption from that rule.
But holders of kyat accounts may withdraw only 500,000, or the equivalent of less than US$250, per week under the military junta rules. That, of course, has raised the question of whether the central bank actually has enough kyat reserves to cover the conversion of all foreign holdings into local currency.
The third reason for the move became clear when the Japanese and Singaporean embassies issued their statements requesting exemptions from the new rules.
Inadvertently, perhaps, the pleas were made to the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” of “The Republic of the Union of Myanmar” and thus amounted to de facto official recognition of the coup-installed government that has otherwise been shunned and sanctioned by the West.
Whatever the case, the economic and diplomatic benefits the junta may derive from the new rules are bound to be dwarfed by the negative consequences of such an ill-conceived measure to assert more military control over the economy.
It’s unclear if the Japanese and Singaporean companies that are still in the country since the coup will consider uprooting if not given the exemptions they have requested. The rules will also likely deter other foreign companies from investing in the country, which was already a tough sell amid the post-coup political upheavals and devastation caused by Covid-19.
But Myanmar needs more, not less, foreign investment to revive the economy.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) stated in a January 2022 report that Myanmar is on brink of economic collapse one year after the coup. According to the ILO, the country’s employment losses in 2021 amounted to 8% of the workforce, or 1.6 million lost jobs. It said Myanmar’s construction, garment, tourism and hospitality industries were among the hardest hit, as were rural farmers.
Similarly, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) issued a statement in December 2021 that estimated “by early 2022, nearly half of Myanmar’s 55 million population — some 25 million people — will be living below the national poverty line. There now appears little doubt that the country’s poverty headcount is likely to return to levels not seen since 2005, effectively erasing 15 years of pre-pandemic economic growth.”
Kanni Wignaraja, director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, was quoted as saying: “A slide into poverty of this scale could mean the disappearance of the middle class – a bad omen for any rapid recovery from this crisis,” she noted.
In many ways, Myanmar’s broad economy, especially foreign-exposed sectors like tourism, was until now a dollar-based economy, with many transactions conducted in foreign rather than local currency.
Trying to eliminate that economy overnight, analysts and observers predict, is bound to put more strain on an already fragile economy that contracted 18% in the year ended September 2021. The World Bank predicted a paltry 1% growth on that contraction in 2022, though the projection was made before the de-dollarization measure was announced.
But Myanmar’s increasingly isolated generals may not care, particularly if they think sympathetic allies like China will turn the other cheek on the foreign currency measure and bail them out if the economy slips deeper into crisis.
The junta’s lurch towards de-dollarization might thus give rise to a new yuan-based financial order – and even greater dependence on Beijing..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-20
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"Strapped for hard currency, the Myanmar junta has moved to seize foreign currencies in the country by ordering that foreign exchange earned by locals must be converted into the local currency at the “official rate” within “one working day.”
Financial experts and the business community voiced concern that the order would not only hurt the country’s US dollar-dependent export-import industry, but also worsen inflation, adding to the already severe burden on the people of Myanmar, whose economy has been in a downward spiral since the military coup in February last year.
In a notice dated April 3, the junta-controlled Central Bank of Myanmar said foreign currencies must be deposited in accounts at licensed banks and exchanged for the local currency within 24 hours. It said the new directive would also apply to foreign currency that came into the country before April 3.
Those who fail to comply would face legal action under the Foreign Exchange Management Law, it said.
The central bank’s official exchange rate is currently 1,850 kyats per US dollar. However, the rate is around 2,050 in the market, meaning exporters and foreign currency account holders will be hurt by the new policy.
The regime didn’t offer any reason for the order.
However, financial experts suggested the new policy showed the regime is suffering a dollar deficit and is desperate for hard currency to pay its debts—estimated to amount to at least US$10 billion—and purchase key supplies such as oil, gas and weapons, mainly to combat the growing armed resistance in the country.
Myanmar’s military regime has been hit hard by a series of international sanctions over the coup it staged against the democratically elected government last year, and its subsequent brutal crackdown on protesters. So far the junta has killed more than 1,700 people. The takeover also prompted the departure of foreign investment from industries ranging from brewing to the energy sector, leaving the country’s economy in disarray. International assistance programs have also been put on hold since the coup.
“They cannot get loans from the World Bank, ADB [Asian Development Bank] and JICA [Japan’s development agency] and the exemption period to pay back loans due to COVID-19 will end soon. So, they need to repay the loans. That’s why they want to control the US dollars in the country,” a local observer said.
The central bank has not imposed restrictions on dollar transactions since 2012; anyone in the country had been able to buy and sell dollars freely since then.
“But now, once you deposit the foreign currency at the bank, it is automatically bought at 1,850 kyats per dollar. You have no choice,” said local businessman Dr. Soe Tun.
One economist who asked for anonymity said the move could see the country’s exports grind to a halt, and may ultimately affect agricultural produce growers, who depend on imported fertilizer.
“Not only exporters, but also local farmers that grow export items will be hit as a result. How much foreign currency does the central bank still have? And can the bank manage it? It appears that the bank can’t. Its new policy will only worsen the situation. As far as I know, they are still holding one meeting after another on how to proceed with its policy,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Furthermore, Myanmar’s banking sector has been in chaos following the coup. Shortly after the coup, the central bank limited cash withdrawals from banks and automated teller machines, restricting the cash flow as many customers rushed to take out their money fearing the possible economic consequences of the takeover. The bank has eased restrictions over the past year, but still, individuals, unable to withdraw as much money as they want from their savings accounts in banks, have to pay around 3 percent to mobile money agents in order to withdraw cash from their mobile wallets. In the early days after the coup, they were paying at least 7 to 10 percent.
A local financial expert said the central bank’s new policy would push dollar exchange transactions into the black market, as the bank cannot sell all the US dollars that import companies need.
“The importers will have to struggle to get US dollars on the black market at a higher price. As a result, the cost of their products will be high and inflation will rise,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-06
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Category:
Banking, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Business and the Military
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Sub-title:
Betting on ASEAN’S Fruitless Diplomacy Undermines International Action
Description:
"Days after the Myanmar military coup on February 1, 2021, the Japanese and Australian governments publicly “confirmed” they would “closely coordinate together regarding the situation in Myanmar.” Since then, they have repeatedly expressed “grave concerns” about human rights abuses in Myanmar while pledging to “work together closely.”
On March 3, Australia adopted new regulations that give it the ability to sanction Myanmar entities and individuals connected to the junta. This is long overdue given that in the past year Myanmar’s military has killed 1,700 people and arbitrarily arrested thousands. Sadly, it’s still an open question whether Australia or Japan will do much more than continue to talk tough and do little about the region’s deepening human rights crisis.
The two regional partners have taken some small steps on Myanmar. Japan issued statements condemning the coup and froze new non-humanitarian aid, while its Diet passed a resolution calling for the restoration of a democratic system. Similarly, Australia redirected its aid program away from junta-related entities and suspended its defense cooperation with Myanmar. A parliamentary committee examining Australia’s response to the coup urged the government to further pursue the restoration of civilian rule as a foreign policy objective.
However, Tokyo and Canberra have failed to coordinate with democratic allies such as the United Kingdom, United States, European Union, and Canada in taking further concrete action to pressure the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw. Rather than imposing targeted sanctions on military leaders and military-owned entities, as the four allies have done, Japan and Australia have effectively bet all their chips on the Five-Point Consensus of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the principle of “ASEAN centrality.” It’s been a losing bet.
Since ASEAN released its five-point consensus last April, there has been no progress on any of the listed issues. The junta has been unwilling to meet even ASEAN’s low bar, and instead has exploited the international community’s deference to ASEAN to keep delaying any substantive action. Meanwhile, Tokyo and Canberra conveniently hide behind the ASEAN fig leaf, refraining from enacting targeted sanctions, and thus undermining the international community’s efforts to hold the Tatmadaw accountable for its atrocities.
In late March 2022, Cambodia’s foreign minister and ASEAN’s special envoy, Prak Sokhonn, met Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing to advocate for the five-point consensus, including a ceasefire. However, Prak Sokhonn himself claimed there was little progress. Myanmar’s junta barred Sakonn from meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi and other imprisoned leaders of the National League for Democracy party, which won the November 2020 election in a landslide.
In January, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that “the actions taken by the U.N. Security Council and by ASEAN have been insufficient to convince Myanmar’s military to cease its violence.” Tokyo and Canberra should heed her call.
Since early 2021, Japan’s ruling and opposition lawmakers have discussed passing a U.S. Magnitsky-style law, which would allow the Japanese government to sanction violators of international human rights outside of the country. Late last year, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said he will continue to “consider” such a law. Lawmakers have also advocated using the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, predominantly used to sanction human rights violators in response to U.N. Security Council resolutions.
But the Japanese government remains passive about imposing sanctions. Last April, then-Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu disparaged the idea of coordinating with other countries to sanction Tatmadaw leaders, claiming without evidence that it would not lead to a “productive outcome.”
Australia, meanwhile, passed the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment Act in late 2021, enabling the government to impose targeted financial sanctions and travel bans. The government said that the new law will allow it to “respond more flexibly and swiftly to a range of situations of international concern, including in collaboration” with Australia’s close allies and partners when in the national interest. Despite pressure from civil society groups and opposition politicians, the government has been unwilling to use the new measures against the Myanmar junta.
The Australian government has said that Myanmar’s junta is “impervious” to international pressure and that sanctions would provide “very little, if any, positive impact to the people on the ground.” But this ignores calls by Myanmar’s people for targeted sanctions and the tangible role that sanctions played in the previous decade in pressuring the military to embark on the reform process. In their decision to embrace Myanmar’s shaky democratization, other governments eased the pressure too early.
Past blanket sanctions were devastating for ordinary people in Myanmar, meaning that coordinated and targeted sanctions with robust enforcement will be key. The military’s financial interests and relationships have become more integrated into the global economy, offering even greater opportunities for effective sanctions.
With the necessary laws in place, the stage is set for Japan and Australia to do more than simply deflect and defer to ASEAN. Tokyo and Canberra should swiftly place targeted sanctions against Tatmadaw leaders and military-owned entities. In addition to sanctions, the two democracies should also push other governments to support a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an arms embargo on Myanmar. Myanmar’s junta needs to be shown there are both immediate and longer-term consequences for their grievous abuses..."
Source/publisher:
The Diplomat via Human Rights Watch
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-28
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Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions, Business and the Military, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Human Rights and international relations
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"On March 25, it was reported in the media that ENEOS Holdings decided to disengage from the Yetagun gas project in Myanmar. The Japanese government (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) is also reportedly planning a withdrawal. This follows media reports in February that Mitsubishi Corporation decided to leave the project. Though much too late, it is a measure of progress that the Japanese investors are moving toward disengaging from this problematic project. However, Mekong Watch, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan, and Justice for Myanmar (JFM) remain concerned whether the disengagement will be conducted in a responsible manner.
Mekong Watch, FoE Japan and Justice For Myanmar, again strongly urge the Japanese government, ENEOS (through its subsidiary JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration), and Mitsubishi Corporation to responsibly disengage from the project, after appropriate steps are taken to close the field, which is predicted to be near depletion. That would ensure future revenues do not flow to the Myanmar military, and that continued human rights and environmental impacts are avoided.
Japan's government and corporations have been deeply involved in the Yetagun field which began production in 2000, and have been complicit in the project’s severe human rights impacts. JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (a wholly-owned subsidiary of ENEOS) and its predecessor acquired rights to three offshore blocks in 1991-92 and developed the Yetagun field. Litigation documents and reports by NGOs have shown that in the late 90s, in order to "secure" the pipeline corridor to transport gas from the fields to Thailand, the Myanmar military was deployed along the pipeline route and subjected local ethnic communities to forced relocation, forced labor, looting, rape, and extrajudicial killings.
The Yetagun project is currently operated by a consortium led by Malaysian state-owned Petronas Carigali, Thailand’s PTTEP, Japan’s Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar), with the military-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar) in turn is jointly held by the Government of Japan through the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (50%), JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (40%), and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%, acquired in 2013).
Revenues from gas fields developed since 2000 have generated significant income for the Myanmar military. Since the attempted coup d'etat in 2021, we have consistently maintained that doing business with the military-controlled MOGE finances the military. Mekong Watch, FoE Japan and Justice For Myanmar have been requesting the Japanese stakeholders including ENEOS to ensure that revenue from the project will not flow to the military, and to disclose the payments they have made or plan to make in connection with the project. However, none of the Japanese investors have taken specific measures or disclosed any information about payments.
In December, leaked documents published by Justice For Myanmar showed that the illegitimate junta leadership expressed strong interest in payments from the Yetagun project owed to MOGE.
While under control of the illegal military junta, MOGE cannot take appropriate measures towards closing the gas field in an environmentally responsible way, which is likely to be costly. The Japanese investors have profited from this project, and should fulfill their responsibilities in cooperation with other project partners until the gas field is responsibly closed.
We will continue to closely monitor the project until responsible disengagement is complete.
Yuka Kiguchi, Director of Mekong Watch, stated, “The Yetagun project has generated significant revenue for the Myanmar military for most of its production period. ENEOS must take responsibility for having benefited the military through payments to MOGE, but this cannot be done by simply withdrawing from the project. ENEOS must disengage with consideration for human rights and the environment based on the ENEOS Group Human Rights Policy.”
Yadanar Maung, Justice For Myanmar spokesperson, commented, “We cautiously welcome ENEOS’ and the Government of Japan’s decision to withdraw and call on them to exit responsibly, ensuring that the illegal junta does not profit from their divestment. In the process of withdrawal, ENEOS and the Government of Japan must engage with the National Unity Government, which is the legitimate government of Myanmar, and stop treating the illegal junta as a government. The junta is a terrorist organistion that uses gas revenues to commit atrocity crimes with total impunity.”..."
Source/publisher:
Friends of the Earth Japan, Justice For Myanmar and Mekong Watch
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-26
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"Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a new round of sanctions against the Burmese military, this time targeting the air force and its suppliers.
The statement by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is available here.
Airstrikes by the Burmese military take place almost every day, and have caused a human rights and humanitarian crisis. The majority of around 550,000 people forced to flee their homes since the attempted coup last year are displaced because of airstrikes or the threat of airstrikes. Airstrikes deliberately target civilians and often take place at night when they know people are home and more people will be injured or killed.
Those sanctioned in the new round are:
General Htun Aung: Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Air Force
Dr Aung Moe Myint: Director of Dynasty International Company Ltd, and Dynasty International Company Ltd
Aung Hlaing Oo: Managing Director of Myanmar Chemical and Machinery Co Ltd (MCM), and MCM.
Miya Win International Ltd
These private Burmese companies are involved in the supply of arms and equipment to the Burmese military, and in particular to the air force.
The sanctions were imposed in coordination with Canada and the USA, which also imposed new sanctions today.
“Stopping Burmese military airstrikes is the most urgent priority, and it is very good to see the British government begin the process of targeting suppliers to the air force,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “We also need to see urgent action by the British government to help stop the flow of aviation fuel to the Burmese military. If the jets can’t fly, they can’t bomb.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-25
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Description:
"Today the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five individuals and five entities connected to Burma’s military regime pursuant to Executive Order (E.O) 14014. This action comes as the regime prepares to mark the 77th Armed Forces Day. The United States has concluded that the Burmese military committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing against Rohingya. The military has committed atrocities and other abuses against members of other ethnic and religious minority groups for decades. Following the February 1, 2021, coup that overthrew Burma’s democratically elected civilian government, the military committed numerous atrocities against the people of Burma, including the violent repression of political dissent and violence against innocent people, including at pro-democracy protests during last year’s Armed Forces Day that killed more than 100 people.
“Brutality and oppression have become trademarks of the Burmese military regime’s rule,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Treasury is committed to holding accountable those who are responsible for the ongoing violence and repression. We will continue to support the people of Burma, including those who are courageously standing in opposition to the military.”
THE BURMESE MILITARY
As part of today’s action, OFAC designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 the 66th Light Infantry Division (66 LID), a military unit based in Pyay Township, for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, the torture of any person in Burma or other serious human rights abuse in Burma. Members of the 66 LID have been accused of carrying out the Christmas Eve massacre in 2021, where civilians in Pyay and Hpruso Townships of Karen State were captured, tortured, and killed, including some whom members of the military reportedly burned alive. Multiple reports have counted women, children, and humanitarian workers among the casualties.
In addition to the 66 LID, OFAC has designated two individuals for being leaders or officials of the military or security forces of Burma. This includes Brigadier-General Ko Ko Oo, who serves as the Commander of Central Command and the head of the Ministry of Defense’s Technologies Department, and Major-General Zaw Hein, who serves as the Commander of the Nay Pyi Taw Command.
SUPPORT TO THE BURMESE MILITARY
Arms Dealers
OFAC designated the following individuals and related entities in connection with providing arms and equipment to Burma’s military regime.
Naing Htut Aung is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for operating in the defense sector of the Burmese economy. Naing Htut Aung is an arms dealer who has procured equipment from Chinese companies and has strong ties to members of the Burmese military leadership, including Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, who was previously designated on February 11, 2021, for being a leader or official of the Burmese military. His firm International Gateways Group of Company Limited is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for being owned or controlled by Naing Htut Aung.
Aung Hlaing Oo is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for operating in the defense sector of the Burmese economy. Aung Hlaing Oo has been a central figure in planning to set up a manufacturing facility in Burma with his company Myanmar Chemical & Machinery that would produce military arms and equipment for both domestic use and export, particularly tanks and mortars in conjunction with the previously designated Directorate of Defense Industries. Myanmar Chemical & Machinery is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for being owned or controlled by Aung Hlaing Oo.
Sit Taing Aung is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for operating in the defense sector of the Burmese economy. Sit Taing Aung has used his companies as fronts to broker arms deals for the Burmese military. He has close ties to members of the Burmese military leadership and other major arms suppliers, including Aung Hlaing Oo and Naing Htut Aung.
Companies owned by blocked individuals
Finally, the following entities are owned or controlled by, or have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 14014.
Htoo Group of Companies is designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for being owned or controlled by Tay Za, who was previously designated on January 31, 2022, for operating in the defense sector of the Burmese economy. Asia Green Development Bank Ltd is subsequently designated pursuant to E.O. 14014 for being owned or controlled by the Htoo Group of Companies.
SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS
As a result of today’s action, pursuant to E.O. 14014, all property and interests in property of the persons named above that are in the United States, or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.
Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or otherwise exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
U.S. sanctions need not be permanent. Sanctions are intended to bring about a positive change of behavior. Consistent with the findings of Treasury’s Sanctions Review, the removal of sanctions is available for persons designated under E.O. 14014, who take concrete and meaningful actions to restore the path to democracy and disassociate themselves from the military-led government in Burma.
For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list..."
Source/publisher:
United States Department of the Treasury (USA)
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, Sanctions, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, The Burmese military's role in the economy
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Sub-title:
UK announces new sanctions against Myanmar military ahead of Myanmar Armed Forces Day
Description:
"new designations target arms dealers and companies responsible for supplying weapons to the military
Minister for Asia condemns the military’s use of violence and calls for return to democracy
Two individuals and 3 companies responsible for supplying the Myanmar military regime with weapons and equipment have been sanctioned, the UK government has announced today. The UK has also designated the new Head of Air Force who was recently appointed to the State Administration Council.
The move comes ahead of Myanmar Armed Forces Day this weekend. On Armed Forces Day last year, the Myanmar military killed over 100 civilians, in what is regarded as the bloodiest day since the coup in February 2021.
New sanctions, freezing assets and banning travel to the UK, will be brought against Dr Aung Moe Myint, Aung Hlaing Oo and General Htun Aung.
Dynasty International Company Ltd, Myanmar Chemical and Machinery Company Ltd, and Miya Win International Ltd will also have their assets frozen. The UK has worked closely with partners in the US and Canada to coordinate this latest round of action.
Minister for Asia Amanda Milling said:
The Myanmar military has shown no signs of stopping its brutal campaign of violence against the people of Myanmar, who continue in their fight for democracy.
These sanctions target those who are instrumental in supplying the military with weapons that facilitate these abuses across the country.
Working with like-minded countries, the UK will always defend the right to freedom, democracy, rule of law and hold to account this suppressive, brutal regime.
The Myanmar military continue to use violence against civilians, including indiscriminate airstrikes, village burnings, and the suppression of the opposition movement.
The individuals and entities listed are responsible for facilitating this violence, including through supplying the military with weapons and services that have increased their ability to commit human rights violations.
These designations demonstrate the UK’s commitment to identifying and cutting off, the military’s supply of weapons and equipment from abroad.
The UK strongly condemns those countries who continue to facilitate the flow of arms to the military regime.
These countries share a responsibility for the brutal violence meted out by the Myanmar military.
The UK will continue to coordinate with allies, to push for an end to violence, the full implementation of the ASEAN Five Point Consensus, and immediate humanitarian access to those in need of lifesaving aid.
Background
Those sanctioned today are:
Dr Aung Moe Myint: Director of Dynasty International Company Ltd, responsible for procurement of arms for the Myanmar military. He is also Honorary Consul of Belarus to Myanmar, and the representative of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Myanmar
Aung Hlaing Oo: Managing Director of Myanmar Chemical and Machinery Co Ltd (MCM). Through his control of MCM, he has acted as a key source of weapons and commercial support for the junta. He is also an associate of Commander-in-Chief and coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing
General Htun Aung: Newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Air Force. He is also a Director of Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Ltd – a major conglomerate ran by the Myanmar military and sanctioned by the UK, United States and European Union for financing the military’s human rights violations
Dynasty International Company Ltd: an importer and broker of arms imports to Myanmar. It has been responsible for the supply and upkeep of military and training aircrafts for the Myanmar Air Force, including since the February 2021 coup
Myanmar Chemical and Machinery Company Ltd: acts as a key source of weapons and commercial support for the junta
Miya Win International Ltd: responsible for ongoing activity in brokering deals for the supply and upkeep of aircraft for the Myanmar Air Force. It has continued to support the Myanmar Security Forces since the coup in February 2021..."
Source/publisher:
Govt. UK (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"Telenor Group is violating European Union (EU) and Norwegian sanctions on Myanmar by having installed and maintained a Lawful Interception Gateway (LIG), which it is now proceeding to transfer to a military-linked company.
Telenor purchased the LIG from the Germany company, Utimaco, and is the legal owner of the system, according to documents leaked to Justice For Myanmar.
Huawei, through its Singapore subsidiary, brokered the purchase of the Utimaco LIG and imported it into Myanmar. Utimaco has provided technical assistance via Huawei, keeping the relationship with Telenor Myanmar indirect.
Leaked documents show that the LIG was delivered to Myanmar in February 2018 and installed and integrated into Telenor’s system by May 2018. The LIG was then connected to a state monitoring centre in mid-2020, with remote support from Utimaco.
Once activated, the LIG will enable the terrorist military junta to simultaneously monitor the content of communication on the Telenor network through the Ministry of Home Affairs. This will violate the right to privacy on a large scale and likely result in further arrests, torture and killings by the military junta.
In September, Telenor stated that they have not yet activated the LIG because doing so would breach EU and Norwegian sanctions, and that they therefore have to exit Myanmar to prevent a sanctions breach.
However, Justice For Myanmar contends that Telenor has already breached EU and Norwegian sanctions by installing and maintaining the LIG.
Telenor will further violate EU sanctions by transferring the Utimaco LIG to a consortium led by the military-linked company, Shwe Byain Phyu. The minority shareholder will be M1 Group, a Lebanese company with a long history of complicity with authoritarian regimes.
In April 2018, following the Myanmar military’s genocide against the Rohingya, the EU strengthened sanctions to include surveillance technology.
Under Article 3.1 of EU restrictive measures, “The sale, supply, transfer or export of equipment, technology or software intended primarily for use in the monitoring or interception by the Government of Myanmar/Burma, or on its behalf, of the internet and of telephone communications on mobile or fixed networks in Myanmar/Burma, including the provision of any telecommunication or internet monitoring or interception services of any kind, as well as the provision of financial and technical assistance to install, operate or update such equipment, technology or software, by nationals of Member States or from the territories of Member States shall be prohibited.”
Norway has aligned with EU sanctions on Myanmar.
A Telenor spokesperson did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar regarding the transfer of the Utimaco LIG and whether the company has Norwegian government approval under sanctions regulations.
In an email to Justice For Myanmar, a Telenor spokesperson stated, “A key reason why Telenor is selling Telenor Myanmar is that we cannot activate intercept equipment, which all operators are required to. This situation is extreme and difficult, with significant challenges. Telenor must ensure its exit happens in a manner that does not increase the security risk for our employees, and that remains our key priority now. Telenor is awaiting regulatory approval for the sale to M1 Group, and beyond this we do not have any further comments.”
Utimaco is also likely to have violated EU sanctions by having provided indirect technical assistance for Telenor Myanmar’s LIG after sanctions were strengthened in April 2018, and would further violate sanctions if they approve Telenor’s transfer of the LIG.
Utimaco denies having provided any support after April 27, 2018. In an email to Justice For Myanmar, the company stated, “Utimaco has never conducted direct business with one of the mobile network operators in Myanmar. With the introduction of EU export regulation (Council Regulation (EU) 2018/647) which was published on 27 April 2018, Utimaco informed its international business partners that Utimaco ends all activities regarding partner projects in Myanmar. In compliance with EU export law, Utimaco has also not delivered any products or services nor provided any support via indirect partners in Myanmar since then.”
Utimaco did not respond to questions regarding Telenor’s imminent transfer of an Utimaco LIG to Shwe Byain Phyu and M1 Group.
The Utimaco LIG replaced an earlier LIG from the US company, SS8. The SS8 LIG may also be transferred as part of the Telenor Myanmar sale. SS8 did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Telenor Group is showing a blatant disregard for the lives of Myanmar people and violating EU sanctions.
“It is Telenor Group that imported and installed dangerous surveillance technology into Myanmar. Telenor Group and its majority owners, the Norwegian government, must now take responsibility for it.
“By transferring surveillance technology to the military-linked company, Shwe Byain Phyu, Telenor will embolden the terrorist Myanmar military junta, providing capabilities to chase down, torture and kill activists, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and journalists.
“Shwe Byain Phyu should be sanctioned as a significant business partner of the Myanmar military, not put in charge of a mobile operator, dangerous surveillance technology and the historical call data of 18 million people.
“We call on the Norwegian and German governments to take immediate action to halt the sale and investigate Telenor Group and Utimaco for violating EU sanctions on Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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Description:
"Burma Campaign UK has today added 28 more companies to the ‘Dirty List’ of companies which are linked to the Burmese military, human rights violations, or environmental destruction in Burma. The additions mean there are now 116 companies on the list.
The list is available here: https://burmacampaign.org.uk/take-action/dirty-list/
“Even genocide and a military coup has not been enough to persuade these companies to cut their links to the Burmese military,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK.
New companies added include Japanese companies such an KDDI Corporation, Daiwa House, and the Japan Bank for Overseas Co-operation for their involvement in projects on military-owned land.
Two more American tech companies have been added, Sectigo/Sitelock, and OnlineNIC, for hosting or providing services to Burmese military websites. They join Alphabet/Google and Apple, which host apps for military companies.
Telegram, the messaging service, has also been added for hosting military channels and allowing hate speech and doxing.
Companies added come from 12 countries, 8 from Japan, 8 from Vietnam, 3 from USA, and one each from Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, China, Canada, UAE, Turkey and Thailand.
All companies were written to in advance of being placed on the list, to give them the opportunity to correct any incorrect or out of date information and to end their involvement and avoid being placed on the list.
The new edition of the ‘Dirty List’ was first published in 2018 and has been regularly updated since then. Many companies have cut their links to the Burmese military or projects linked to human rights violations to avoid being placed on the list or after being placed on it. Companies removed from the list include EDF, Maersk, Evergreen, Western Union and Infosys.
“The Burmese military has committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, doing any form of business with them is completely unacceptable,” said Mark Farmaner. “The Dirty List exposes the role companies all over the world are playing in helping to finance the military and supply it with arms..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"Justice For Myanmar welcomes Kirin Holdings’ announcement to withdraw from their business with the Myanmar military conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL).
Kirin Holdings has two joint ventures with MEHL: Myanmar Brewery Limited and Mandalay Brewery Limited.
MEHL directly finances the Myanmar military and top generals, including Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
MEHL shareholders consist of military units that are directly responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After a mass boycott of Myanmar Beer, Kirin announced a 46% decline in 1Q 2021 year on year sales revenue.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “We welcome Kirin’s decision to finally move to end their business with MEHL, listening to the voice of Myanmar people, and the demands of Myanmar, Japanese and global civil society.
“Millions have joined the boycott of Myanmar Beer, and this shows that collective action can disrupt the military cartel.
“Kirin should never have entered into business with Myanmar’s brutal and corrupt military.
“Kirin’s lucrative brewery has financed atrocity crimes and enriched top generals.
“We call on Kirin Holding to divest responsibly, mitigating and remediating negative human rights impacts.
“Kirin must prevent payments to the terrorist junta and MEHL in the course of divestment.
“Kirin’s withdrawal must be done in consultation with the National Unity Government.
“Kirin’s withdrawal should serve as a warning to all other businesses that continue to maintain ties with the terrorist military junta and its conglomerates. Business with terrorists does not pay.
“Other Japanese companies that continue to do business with the junta and its conglomerates, including Daiwa House, Eneos Holdings and Yokogawa Bridge Corp, must follow Kirin Holdings, cut ties with the Myanmar military and stop financing terror.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-14
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Human Rights and international relations
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pdf pdf
Size:
129.87 KB 121.41 KB
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Description:
"Woodside has decided to withdraw from its interests in Myanmar.
Woodside has operated in Myanmar since 2013. conducting multiple exploration and dr i lling campaigns. It
holds a 40% participating interest in the A -6 Joint Venture as joint operator and participating interests in
exploration permits AD-1 and A D-8.
Woodside had previously announced that it was placing all Myanmar business decisions under review
following the State of Emergency ded ared in February 2021 and the deteriorating human rights situation in
the country.
In 2021 Woodside completed the relinquishment o f exploration permits covering offshore Blocks AD-2. AD-5
and A -4 and is in the process o f withdrawing from Blocks AD-8 . AD-7 and A-7.
Woodside w ill now commence arrangements to formally e xit B locks AD- 1 and AD-8 , the A -6 Joint Venture
and the A -6 production sharing contract (PSC) held w ith the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
The non-cash expense associated with the decision to w ithdraw from Blocks A -6 and AD-1 is expected to
impact 2021 net profit a fter tax (NPAT) by approximately US$138 million. This is in addition to the
US$71 million exploration and evaluation expense for B lock AD-7 disclosed in Woodside's Fourth Quarter
Report on 20 January 2022. These costs w ill be excluded from underlying NPAT fo r the purposes of
calculating the dividend.
Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill said while W oodside had hoped to develop the A -6 gas resources w ith its joint
venture participants and deliver much-needed energy to the Myanmar people, there was no longer a viable
option fo r Woodside to continue its activities.
"Woodside has been a responsible foreign investor in Myanmar since 2013 w ith our conduct guided by the
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other relevant international standards.
"Given the ongoing situation in Myanmar we can no longer contemplate Woodside’s participation in the
development o f the A-6 gas resources, nor other future activities in-country." she said..."
Source/publisher:
Woodside Petroleum
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-27
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Economic History - general
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pdf pdf
Size:
147.17 KB 32.56 KB
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Description:
"January 11, 2022, Myanmar: Companies in the United States have imported nearly 1,600 tonnes of teak from Myanmar since the military’s attempted coup in February 2021.
Following the coup attempt, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed multiple targeted sanctions with the aim to block trade with Myanmar that benefits the illegal military junta.
Sanctions were placed on the state-owned Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), which solely manages the sale of timber in Myanmar, auctioning logs to private companies for export.
Through MTE, the junta takes a large percentage of all export revenue through various taxes and charges, and this contributes to financing their campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar.
Since February 1, Myanmar’s military has killed over 1,400 unarmed civilians and imprisoned 11,000 more.
Despite sanctions, from February to the end of November last year, US businesses continued to import timber from Myanmar, according to data from the global trade database, Panjiva.
The timber arrived in 82 different shipments between February 1 and November 30, 2021, largely consisting of teak board and scantling that are used for shipbuilding, outdoor decking, and furniture.
Multiple US timber wholesalers and manufacturers are involved, including East Teak Fine Hardwoods, J. Gibson McIlvain, Kingsley Bate Warehouse, Lumberbest, World Panel Products and others.
The data indicates that companies are circumventing sanctions by trading via intermediaries, keeping the link to MTE indirect.
It appears that only the intermediaries’ details are included on the documentation required for US imports, allowing potentially illegal imports to pass under the radar of US authorities.
Sanctions imposed by the United States on MTE prohibit “the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person”.
Considering that sanctions aim to block trade with MTE, and the timber exported from Myanmar is originally auctioned by MTE, the military junta still receives funds from the trade no matter who officially exports the timber.
This indirect trade between companies in the US and MTE may not have attracted penalties from OFAC at this stage, but action is now urgently needed.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Sanctions must be enforced in order to be effective. We urge OFAC to investigate US imports of timber from Myanmar since sanctions were imposed on MTE.”
“We call on the US Government to ban all Myanmar timber imports to prevent further revenue from reaching the illegal military junta.
“Continuing trade in timber from Myanmar supports the illegal military junta that is committing atrocity crimes with total impunity, including the indiscriminate murder of children.
“Through such targeted sanctions on imports from military-controlled industries in Myanmar, the US and other countries have the power to cut the financial flow to the illegal junta and support the Myanmar people’s struggle to end this tyranny and establish federal democracy.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Sanctions - general, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
219.01 KB 128.24 KB
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Sub-title:
The Third Pole explores how the military coup will affect Chinese-backed dams along Southeast Asia’s last free-flowing river
Description:
"Plans for seven Chinese-built dams along the Salween River have been a source of friction for Myanmar and China for some time. Prior to the military coup on 1 February, the elected party the National League for Democracy and grassroots campaigners were already locked in conflict. International isolation following the coup may now force the government to move closer to China than it would like, leaving indigenous groups more at risk.
The future of dam building is now in the hands of General Min Aung Hlaing’s military regime. Last week, he met with State Administration Council members and departmental officials in Hpa-an, the state capital of Karen. Along with repeated claims of election fraud, he said that the Hatgyi hydropower plant will be built. He said nothing of the environmental concerns, only that “those objecting [to] the project for various reasons should understand the benefits.”
In response, Saw Kyaw, brigadier general of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, told news website The Irrawaddy: “The entire Karen population oppose the dam. Peace has gone in the area now. If the hydropower project is to be implemented, only our people will suffer.”
The Salween remains Southeast Asia’s longest free-flowing river in a region that has seen frenzied dam-building on the Mekong, upper Yangtze and other major waterways.
It flows 3,289 kilometres from the Tibetan Plateau to the Andaman Sea near Myanmar’s border with Thailand. In China, it is known as the Nu River. Crossing into Myanmar, the Salween, or Thanlwin, snakes through ethnic minority lands in Shan, Kayah, Karen and Mon states. It is an artery for immense biodiversity, providing sustenance for millions of people in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden regions.
The Hatgyi and Mong Ton dams are among the largest of seven mainstream dam projects planned by Chinese and Thai companies on the Salween. The 7,000-megawatt Mong Ton dam in Shan state is sponsored by Thailand’s EGAT and China Three Gorges Corporation, and could become Myanmar’s largest dam. Both Hatgyi and Mong Ton are in the planning stage. They would inundate land that is now home to villagers displaced by conflict in the late 1990s who have been unable to return. The Mong Ton site alone would displace at least 60,000.
Civic protesters silenced
The Save the Salween Network previously organised community resistance along the length of the river, using the International Day of Action for Rivers, 14 March, to amplify the opposition of different regions and ethnic groups in a unified protest. This year, activists along the upper and mid-reaches of the river in Shan state could not hold public events on 14 March.
“In Karen state, the organisation was able to campaign, as it was in the area controlled by KNU [Karen National Union, a political organisation]. In southern Shan state, that would be too risky,” a spokesperson from Save the Salween Network told The Third Pole.
The military coup has brought internet connectivity restrictions, a ban on international money transfers and continuing violence. Save the Salween Network continues to advocate for the river in whatever small ways remain. “Because we are not registered in the official registry, our… organisation is in a better position than others. We are off their radar. Despite this, I am in hiding,” the spokesperson said.
Air strikes have been carried out in the Salween Peace Park, a grassroots conservation and indigenous people’s initiative. In March, Myanmar’s military launched the first air strikes on KNU territory in 20 years after rebels killed 10 soldiers, Reuters reported. Attacks continued through April and May, killing dozens and forcing thousands to flee.
The military government has persisted in its claims of election fraud to little effect. Protests and violence continue across the country in the form of attacks on military positions and assassinations.....Waters rising:The current violence builds on disaffection between ethnic groups and the now-overthrown civilian government. “The NLD was so close to China and they did not share any information on any of the pursued projects,” so “ethnic people lost trust in this party,” the Save the Salween Network spokesperson said.
However, he said he expects the military to continue the dam projects, “not just for the sake of generating electricity, but for the militarisation of the area. The flooded area will destroy the base area of ethnic armed [militias].”
In the past the KNU has expressed strong opposition to dams, which has led to violence between the military, or Tatmadaw, and the KNU.
Some major dam sites, in particular the Hatgyi dam, are on the internal border of KNU-controlled land. This is now the frontline of an escalating conflict.
In Thailand, images have appeared of Tatmadaw camps ablaze from the Myanmar side of the Salween. These appear to confirm KNU claims of a successful 27 April attack. As dam sites become battle grounds, the river’s future depends on the outcome of the fighting along its lower reaches.....Who will build?: Six weeks after the military coup, the French energy company EDF suspended the USD 1.5-billion Shweli 3 hydropower dam project in response to the jailing of NLD leaders and shootings of protesters and journalists. Other international companies are likely to be equally reluctant.
“Much depends on whether the junta manages to establish its effective control of the country,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century. He added: “Chinese firms, which are less susceptible to the reputational pressures of Western companies, will gradually move in to fill the vacuum.”
Prior to the coup, U Aung Myint, general secretary of the Myanmar Renewable Energy Association, told The Third Pole: “Honestly, we want the government to cancel the agreements for big hydropower projects such as Myitsone and Tasang, but I think it will not happen for many reasons.”.....Chinese companies feel the heat: The coup drew sanctions from other nations, yet China blocked condemnation at the UN and referred to the violent overthrow of the NLD government as a “cabinet reshuffle”. The comment was unpopular on the streets. The early days of the coup saw violence against Chinese-owned businesses and threats to Chinese-built pipelines, leading to pressure from China for the new military government to protect its assets.
“Violence against Chinese economic interests in Myanmar, including the oil and gas pipelines that bisect the country, would set off alarm bells at the top levels of the Chinese government,” Strangio said. “Of course, any situation in which Chinese economic interests are coming under attack from anti-military protesters would also be one in which China’s hydropower interests would also be vulnerable to attack.”.....Unknown cost: Forgoing large hydropower projects on the mainstream Salween would avoid disruption to sediment distribution, aquatic ecology and local livelihoods, according to a 2018 International Finance Corporation strategic environmental assessment. However, the lack of studies on the Salween means there are many unknowns pertaining to environmental impacts.
“Unfortunately, because we don’t have good baseline or historical data on either the fish or the fisheries, we may never know in quantitative terms what the impacts of the dams are,” said Aaron Koning, a freshwater ecologist and conservation scientist at the Nevada-based Global Water Center.
Koning has spent seven years studying a grassroots network of community fish reserves in the Salween basin, and says hydropower dams could devastate the river’s ecology and fisheries. He worked with communities harvesting eels that migrate to the Indian Ocean to spawn; their life cycle would be upset by the Hatgyi dam, he says.
“We don’t know much about the habitat requirements or migration patterns of most other Salween River fish species, some of which are endemic to the basin and found nowhere else on Earth,” Koning added. In the Mekong, Chinese-built dams have caused deep harm to fisheries.....Ignoring indigenous communities: China and Myanmar have been accused of ignoring ethnic groups when planning dams on the Salween. The people of the conflict-stricken river basin states of Shan, Karen and Kayah states have the most to lose from further hydropower projects. In Thailand, the Salween marks part of the border. Predominantly Karen ethnic communities living along the river, including refugees from Myanmar, rely heavily on its fisheries for nutritional security.
There is little hope civil society can mount a defence of the Salween’s ecology, given the Tatmadaw’s crackdown on dissent with tacit approval from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The NLD had faced calls from local and international environmental groups to halt and suspend dam projects such as those at Myitsone and Mong Ton (locally called Tasang). The military government that has replaced it is unlikely to listen.....Infrastructure versus inclusion: The hydropower plans are promoted as a way of dealing with Myanmar’s low access to electricity. Almost 60% of the population has no access to electricity, and the NLD had planned for nationwide electrification by 2030. A great deal of this was supposed to be from hydropower. Nevertheless local opposition persisted, even though the Salween region is one of those most deprived. Many living on its banks rely on small rooftop solar panels that provide only a few hours of electricity a day.
The National Electrification Plan’s first phase was set to end by mid-2021, U Maung Win, deputy director general of the Department of Rural Development, told The Third Pole prior to the coup, noting plans to provide electricity to 626,757 households in 5,080 villages far from the national grid.
Energy needs in Myanmar are expected to rise 15-17% annually. Although sizeable, Mong Ton would only provide around 10% of its energy output to Myanmar, with Thailand, the main investor, buying the rest. U Aung Myint told The Third Pole that Myanmar already relies on hydropower for more than 60% of its electricity generation.....Marriage of convenience: The Mong Ton and Hatgyi dams – as well as Ywathit, Weigyi and others planned for the Salween – have varying levels of Chinese investment and construction involvement.
The Chinese-funded Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy in Kachin state has been a point of friction between China and Myanmar for more than a decade. The plan would have dammed a sacred river, flooded an area the size of Singapore, displaced thousands of people and devastated both fish and wildlife populations. After much lobbying from environmental and Kachin groups, Myanmar’s democratic government halted the Myitsone project but never cancelled it.
Strangio said that if China believes that the junta will ultimately prevail over the protest movement, “then it will seek to work with the generals to advance long-standing strategic and economic goals in Myanmar.” That will lead the military government, possibly the one institution most suspicious of China, right into the arms of its northern neighbour.
“In that event, continuing international opprobrium would likely force the Tatmadaw into a heavier reliance on China than it would be comfortable with, but if that is the price of staying in power, I suspect the marriage of convenience would hold,” Strangio said..."
Source/publisher:
The Third Pole
Date of entry/update:
2021-06-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Dams and other projects on the Salween and its tributories
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Description:
"Energy giant TotalEnergies(TOTF.PA) said on Friday it had gone as far as it could for now to limit the revenues going to the military junta in Myanmar while staying within a legal framework and assuring power supplies.
Total and U.S. energy company Chevron (CVX.N) earlier this week said they were suspending some payments from a gas joint venture that would have reached the junta, earning praise from pro-democracy activists for taking an important first step.
International companies doing business in the country have come under pressure from rights groups and Myanmar's parallel civilian government to review their operations to stop payments flowing to a military government that seized power on Feb. 1.
TotalEnergies Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne told a shareholder meeting on Friday that the only way to fully stop all revenues flowing to the junta would be to halt production in the Yadana gas fields, which supply power plants in Thailand and Myanmar's domestic market.
The company has rejected this option for now, saying it would expose workers and the group to legal threats and penalise the region in terms of energy access.
"First of all, the bulk of revenues come from the fact there's a client that buys that production, which is Thai company PTTEP ... and then there are the taxes," Pouyanne said.
"Deciding to not pay taxes would mean we would be in breach of the law, there's a criminal risk attached.".....SANCTIONS: Total would comply with any further sanctions imposed on Myanmar, including by the United States and the European Union, Pouyanne added.
Earlier this week shareholders in the Moattama Gas Transportation Company (MGTC) - led by Total and Chevron and which also includes Thailand's PTTEP and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) - voted to suspend all cash distributions.
That move will curtail revenues going to MOGE.
But MOGE, which is a state energy firm, is also an operator of the Yadana gas field, meaning it receives revenues from there.
Pouyanne said no revenues flowing to Myanmar state coffers went through offshore accounts, even though MGTC, the gas transportation company, is domiciled in Bermuda.
He said MOGE received its payments from Thai group PTTEP through bank accounts set up by the Myanmar state in Thailand, and that payments to MGTC were also made via Thai bank accounts.
A spokesman for Myanmar's military junta did not answer phone calls seeking comment on the issue.
MGTC paid its taxes in Myanmar, Pouyanne added..."
Source/publisher:
Total SE ( Paris)
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-28
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Oil and gas, Business and the Military, Sanctions, The Burmese military's role in the economy, Sanctions - general
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"If you need cash in Myanmar, you have to get up early. Queues start forming outside banks at 4 a.m., where the first 15 or 30 customers are given a plastic token that will allow them to enter the bank when it opens at 9:30 a.m. and withdraw cash, according to more than a dozen people who spoke to Reuters.
If you do not get a token, you either have to queue for hours for the few functioning cash dispensing machines outside or go to black-market brokers who charge big commissions.
The cash crisis is one of the most pressing problems for the people of Myanmar after the Feb. 1 military coup. The central bank, now run by a junta appointee, has not returned some of the reserves it holds for private banks, without giving any reason, leaving the banks short of cash.
The banks themselves have been closed or open only intermittently as many staff have gone on strike to protest against the coup. Meanwhile, internet outages make online transactions difficult and international transfers have largely stopped working.
That presents problems for Burmese people and small businesses as they try to navigate an economy rapidly crumbling under the country’s new leaders and the collapse of tourism, one of Myanmar’s fastest-growing sectors. The Burmese kyat has dropped some 20% in value since the coup.
“It’s now very difficult to operate a business,” said Hnin Hnin, an entrepreneur in her mid-20s who supplies shampoo and bedsheets to high-end hotels. “Traders don’t accept bank transfers now. They want cash. So we need to find the cash.”
As a result, Hnin Hnin, who agreed to be identified only by a part of her name to discuss sensitive matters, has been one of the thousands of people queuing daily in front of the few functioning cash machines in major cities. Some people band together in groups of five, she said, so one person can take out money for the whole group.
She has also been forced to figure out ways to pay her suppliers overseas, by making an agreement to swap money with a partner holding cash in an account in Thailand. Under the agreement, the partner gives Hnin Hnin access to her Thai baht account, so she can pay suppliers in Thailand, and Hnin Hnin pays her back with physical kyat notes in Myanmar.
The central bank and the junta did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters put questions to Myanmar’s four largest private banks, including Kanbawza Bank and CB Bank. They also declined to respond.
It is now almost impossible to get hold of U.S. dollars or other overseas currency at regular exchange centres in Yangon, a dozen people told Reuters. Black-market traders will take online transfers in exchange for physical notes in various currencies, they said, but add a commission of up to 10%.
Myanmar's private banks were in trouble long before this year’s coup, at least partly because of their habit of lending money to well-connected customers who rarely bothered to pay them back, at least four bankers, including then-deputy central bank governor, told Reuters in 2017.
The coup and the protests against it now mean there is no functional banking system, according to Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst specializing in Myanmar.
“You have a three-pronged hit to the banking system,” said Horsey. “The pre-existing problems with the banks, which will be all the more difficult to resolve now; you have the economic impact of the coup which has produced a virtual hard stop to the economy without any kind of ability by the regime to manage that or inject stimulus; and then you have the banking sector strike itself.”
People want to withdraw cash now to buy food and other essentials, said Horsey, and also because they fear the banking system will collapse.
POVERTY RATE COULD DOUBLE
The cash crisis is the most immediate sign of much deeper economic problems facing Myanmar, some experts said.
Financial research firm Fitch Solutions said in April it expected Myanmar's gross domestic product to shrink 20% in 2021.
The United Nations Development Programme said last month that Myanmar faces economic collapse due to the combined effect of the new coronavirus and the coup, which in its worst-case analysis could put nearly half the country’s 54 million people into poverty, compared to about a quarter in 2017.
“If the situation on the ground persists, the poverty rate could double by the beginning of 2022,” said UNDP in its report. "By then, the shock from the crisis will have resulted in significant losses of wages and income, particularly from small businesses, and a drop in access to food, basic services and social protection."
Millions are expected to go hungry in the coming months, the United Nations’ World Food Programme said in an analysis published in April.
Some workers have trickled back to resume their jobs at banks in the past few weeks, but financial analysts see no immediate alleviation of the cash shortage.
In Yangon, the country’s commercial capital, an egg and cooking oil trader who identified herself as Khin told Reuters the flow of eggs, oil and other agricultural commodities had slowed substantially and was no longer sufficient, forcing her to raise prices by 25%.
While groceries are available in markets and in shops, some country analysts said they worry that farmers will not have access to seeds or credit to buy them before the monsoon planting season around June.
“Farming in rural areas has already slowed down and the impact will be huge in the next season," said Khin. "Beans suppliers and chicken farm owners aren't sure if they can start another cycle."
The commercial chain has been grinding to a halt, a major rice trader who works with hundreds of Myanmar farmers told Reuters. That trader said he lacks the cash to buy rice from farmers, which means in turn the farmers do not have money to buy equipment or pay workers to produce the rice.
Many of the private banks’ loans were collateralised against real estate in Yangon, where property prices have collapsed since the coup, according to Myanmar economy analysts.
Private banks in Myanmar are required to deposit a certain percentage of their customers’ money with the country’s central bank, as a way of protecting savings. Two bankers told Reuters their banks had deposited more than is required, but were denied permission by the central bank to withdraw any surplus, leaving them short of cash to dispense to customers.
A banker at a major Myanmar bank said the closure of branches in the first two months after the coup prevented a run on the banking system with a rush to withdraw savings. “It was a good thing that the branches haven’t been open,” said the executive. “If the branches were open, we wouldn’t have enough cash to pay out..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Banking, Economic History, The Burmese military's role in the economy, WFP (World Food Programme), UNDP - Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Summary:
"Before last year’s November election, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank predicted that Myanmar would bounce back strongly from the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with...
Description:
"Before last year’s November election, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank predicted that Myanmar would bounce back strongly from the economic impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the economy set to grow at around 6 percent in 2021.
In the immediate aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1 coup, junta leaders sought to keep the economy on track by presenting themselves as business-friendly and saying that economic policies would remain unchanged during the state of emergency. The junta even appointed some individuals to Myanmar’s key economic ministries who were already well-connected and well-known to the international community.
But now the World Bank’s latest forecast reveals that Myanmar’s economy is in dire jeopardy and is projected to contract by 10 percent this year due to the impact of the military takeover. 80 days after the coup, there are already many signs that the economy is in freefall, with new investment drying up, the withdrawal of existing investment and the halting of key international-backed infrastructure projects, as western countries sanction the military regime.
Western business groups including the United States, United Kingdom, European, Italian and French chambers of commerce rejected the regime’s invitation to meet with its cabinet members in March. Moreover, nearly 50 international companies including Coca-Cola, Telenor and Heineken, signed a joint statement expressing their deep concern over developments in Myanmar.
The impact of the coup has been to reverse the country’s economic reforms and the economic progress made during the last decade. The coup has pushed Myanmar—previously one of the region’s fastest-growing economies – back into dire poverty and left the economy on the brink of collapse. The Irrawaddy looks at what has happened to Myanmar’s economy since the military takeover and how that has impacted people across the country.....Number of new companies slumps: Company registration figures from the government investment agency, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), reveal a huge slump in the number of new companies being registered.
DICA data shows that the number of new registered companies was 1,373 in January, 188 in February and 163 in March. The figures reveal that the number of registered companies has declined nearly 87 percent compared with the same period last year. In 2020, under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government and even with the COVID-19 crisis, the number of new registered companies was 1,415 in January, 1,298 in February and 1,015 in March.....Internet restrictions cripple digital economy and Fintech market: The emerging digital economy and Fintech market collapsed after the military regime introduced large-scale internet restrictions across Myanmar. The internet blackouts have affected everything from mobile money to e-commerce and online food delivery services.
Access to mobile money services including Wave money and KZB pay has been crippled since March, when the regime blocked mobile internet and broadband services. E-commerce business is down by 75 percent, while online food delivery services nationwide are down 80 percent following the coup, according to reports. The result is that thousands of young people are now out of work.....Garment sector in jeopardy: The garment sector has also been paralyzed after the largest foreign brands halted orders over concern at the politically unstable situation, while deadly crackdowns in industrial areas have also forced factories to close down and workers to return to their hometowns.
Myanmar earned between US$4 billion and US$6 billion from cut, make and pack garment exports in 2020 and the industry employed 500,000 people before the coup. Now, over 80 percent of the garment sector has been forced to suspend operations since mid-February.
Labour organizations say that over one-third [200,000] of garment industry workers have lost their jobs since the junta launched deadly crackdowns on anti-coup protesters and imposed martial law in industrial areas.
Since the coup, the sector has also lost major foreign brands including Italy’s Benetton and Swedish Retailer H&M after they decided to pause new orders from Myanmar.
H & M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, has had around 45 direct suppliers in Myanmar for the last seven years. But the company has suspended new orders, citing “practical difficulties and an unpredictable situation”.
Italy’s Benetton Group has also suspended all new orders from its suppliers in Myanmar, citing concerns over the increasing use of deadly violence against pro-democracy supporters.....Thousands of construction workers out of a job: Around 300,000 to 400,000 workers in the construction sector lost their jobs following the coup, according to the Construction Workers Union.
The union said that the political instability since the coup has forced a halt on all major infrastructure projects in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, including the Korean Industrial complex, the Japan-backed Yangon-Thanlyin Bridge and the extension of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.....Stock trading at a record low: The value of shares traded on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX) in March declined to its lowest level in history following the coup, according to YSX records.
The records reveal that the value of stocks traded on the exchange in March was just 110 million kyats. In the same period last year, the value of stocks traded on the exchange peaked at 1.425 billion Kyats.
The value of stocks traded in February this year also dropped drastically compared with the figures in February 2020. YSX records show that 442 million kyats worth of shares were traded on the exchange in February, compared to 1.48 billion kyats traded in February 2020.....South Korea suspends finance for infrastructure projects: In response to the military coup, the South Korean government has decided to halt financing for Myanmar government infrastructure projects until next year, according to Korean media reports.
Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance has temporarily suspended financial support through its Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for any new infrastructure projects by the military regime, according to the reports.
The Korean government set up the EDCF to provide support for industrial development and economic stability in developing countries and to promote economic cooperation between Korea and those countries.
The EDCF signed with the ousted NLD government to provide $1 billion worth of loans to Myanmar until 2022 to support industrialization and economic growth through various infrastructure projects. Under the agreement, the Export-Import Bank of Korea also agreed to support a nearly US$63 million loan to help Myanmar build a Korea-Myanmar Industrial Complex.....Banking and cash flow crisis: Myanmar’s banking system has been paralyzed since the coup as hundreds of branches of at least 31 local banks and 13 foreign ones have closed their doors due to staff strikes.
All banking services have been halted in the country except for mobile banking and ATM services. As a result almost all trading companies, especially those engaged in sea-bound trade, have been forced to halt operations, as the banks are unable to issue the documents needed to import and export goods. Companies are also struggling to pay salaries, as banks are not providing payroll services.
Businesses are also suffering from a cash shortage as bank branches have closed down and the regime has ordered limits on cash withdrawals for both individuals and companies.
Moreover, businesses have been constrained by cash shortages for months. Foreign businesses are also suffering from a money shortage as both cash withdrawals from the local bank and importing new funding from abroad has become difficult.
Under the previous government, the review process for new transactions from abroad took only a week. Currently, business people are not allowed to know how the review process works.....Foreign firms to exit: Large foreign firms are under pressure to pull out of any businesses which help bankroll the military regime, Australia’s Woodside Petroleum said it has decided to withdraw its 100-odd workers from an offshore drilling project in Myanmar.
The company said the move is a response to human rights violations following the coup, with Woodside saying that it will keep all business decisions under review until they see the future outlook for Myanmar and that political stability has improved.
The company completed pulling staff and machinery out of Myanmar in March.
South Korean Steel Makers Coated & Color Steel Co Ltd, an affiliate of POSCO, said that a plan is underway to end its joint venture with Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Co Ltd (MEHL), one of the country’s two military-controlled conglomerates.
The company is already discussing a plan to buy MEHL’s 30 percent stake so that it can continue operations as the sole owner. The joint venture company produces sheet metal for residential and factory roofing and made profits of around US$1.7 million in the last year.
The move came after the company came under pressure from human rights group in both Myanmar and Korea to end its ties with military-linked companies in Myanmar.....World Bank forecasts 10 percent slump in growth: Myanmar’s economic growth is set to shrink by 10 percent this financial year as military rule hammers one of the region’s fastest-growing economies, according to the World Bank.
The global financial institution forecast in December that Myanmar’s economy would start to recover from COVID-19 in March. But it said that since the coup Myanmar has been heavily affected by protests, strikes, military action, reductions in mobility and disruption to public services, like banking, logistics and internet access......ADB halts funding for government projects: One of the Myanmar’s biggest development partners, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has also put on hold funding for Myanmar government development projects ranging from transport and energy, to education and information technology, following the lethal crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime protesters that have killed over 700 civilians.
The ADB said in a statement that it remains “deeply concerned about recent developments in Myanmar, especially the loss of life during civil protests”. The bank stated that the change in the country’s circumstances will have a serious impact on Myanmar’s economic and social development.
Under the latest loans agreement, the ADB approved a US$484 million loan in November 2020 to construct a new expressway connecting Bago Region and Mon State. Both areas lie along Japan’s planned East-West Economic Corridor, a grand infrastructure scheme for the Greater Mekong Subregion.....French energy giant halts hydropower project: French energy giant Électricité de France (EDF) has suspended a hydropower project worth more than US$1.5 billion in Myanmar’s Shan State over human rights concerns, as the military regime continues to use deadly force against anti-coup protesters across the country.
EDF said that it has halted development of the Shweli-3 Project, including the activities of its subcontractors. Led by EDF, the 671 MW project was being jointly developed with Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and the locally owned Myanmar Ayeyar Hinthar Company.
The companies received a Notice to Proceed in 2018 under the NLD government. It was expected to generate 3 billion kWh of electricity annually for the national grid and supply power to more than 8.5 million people nationwide.....Singapore’s businessman leaves: Prominent Singaporean businessman Lim Kaling has pulled out of a joint venture with ties to the Myanmar military-owned conglomerate MEHL.
One week after the military staged their coup and detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, Lim said that recent events in Myanmar had caused him “grave concern”.
Lim Kaling disposed of his one-third stake in the joint venture that owns RMH Singapore Pte Ltd. MEHL and RMH jointly operate Virginia Tobacco Co. Ltd. (VTCL). RMH owns a 49-percent stake in VTCL, while MEHL owns the remainder. It has been operated as a joint venture since 1993. VTCL has a virtual monopoly on the cigarette market in Myanmar, producing the country’s most popular cigarette brands, Red Ruby and Premium Gold.....Kirin cuts tie with Myanmar Military-owned firm: Five days after the coup, Japanese beverage giant Kirin cut ties with a Myanmar military-owned conglomerate saying it was deeply concerned by the recent actions of the military, which are against their standards and human rights policy.
Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. announced that it would end its joint-venture partnership with MEHL. Kirin held 51 percent of both the Myanmar Brewery and Mandalay Brewery, with MEHL holding the rest.....World Bank halts payments to Myanmar: The World Bank, one of Myanmar’s largest development partners, announced that it had put a hold on disbursements for its existing development operations in the country in sectors ranging from electricity and education to technical assistance, following the military takeover.
The bank is involved in at least 24 ongoing projects in Myanmar worth billions of dollars, according to the World Bank’s development project list.....Singapore: wait and see: Singaporean conglomerate Sembcorp has decided to halt a plan to develop an industrial park in Yangon’s Hlegu Township.
Sembcorp President and CEO Wong Kim Yin told media that his company would wait until the political situation stabilizes, saying the company also needs to see how its customers respond as well.
The Myanmar-Singapore (Hlegu) Industrial Park is expected to be built on 436 hectares of land in Hlegu Township at an estimated cost of $230 million. The project received approval from the Myanmar Investment Commission in 2020.
The project was a joint development by Sembcorp CSSD Myanmar Co.—a subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries — and Myanmar’s Pahtama Group and Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corp. The development was a priority project under the ousted NLD government’s plan to secure foreign investment to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar’s economy......Toyota postpones plan to open new plant: Toyota, the world’s biggest car manufacturer, has delayed opening a vehicle production plant in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the outskirts of Yangon, with the company citing concerns over political instability following the coup.
Toyota Myanmar announced its plan to build the US$52.6 million production plant in 2019, and said it anticipated employing more than 150 staff in Myanmar. The company said in 2019 that it expected the plant to produce around 2,500 Hilux trucks annually, starting from 2021.....US$1 billion industrial complex halted: One day after the coup, work on a US$1 billion industrial hub project backed by the Amata Corporation, Thailand’s largest industrial estate developer, was suspended due to possible sanctions by Western countries.
Envisioned as an industrial complex on 2,000 acres of land near Laydaunkkan Village in East Dagon and South Dagon townships in Yangon, the project was one of a number launched by the former NLD government to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar’s economy.
The NLD government inaugurated the project in late December last year and it was expected to create 33,000 jobs, attract foreign investment and boost the Yangon Region’s industrial output and exports..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma/Myanmar's relationship with the Global Economy, Banking, Business and the Military, The Burmese military's role in the economy, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
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Sub-title:
Beer giant Kirin has hired Deloitte financial advisers to investigate MEHL profits after the conglomerate proved uncooperative on due diligence
Description:
"Japanese beer giant Kirin said it may cut ties with its joint-venture partner Myanma Economic Holdings (MEHL) after the military conglomerate repeatedly ignored Kirin’s requests for financial documents during a due diligence review, Kirin said Friday.
Since February, Kirin has been asking MEHL for financial information as part of a “strategic review” of its Myanmar operations. The company said on Friday that MEHL, after first providing “insufficient” documentation, has been unresponsive.
Kirin is the majority owner in joint ventures with MEHL of both the Myanmar Brewery and the Mandalay Brewery, together producing about 80% of the beer consumed in Myanmar. The review came after several human rights campaigns raised concerns about MEHL profits potentially funding a military accused of genocide.
A detailed UN report from 2019 urged companies to stop doing business with MEHL, saying it and its associated businesses continue to help fund human rights abuses against ethnic communities across Myanmar.
MEHL is headed by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who the UN has recommended be tried for genocide for leading a campaign of mass murder, rape and arson against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2017.
Kirin’s requests having gone unheeded, the company has now hired financial consultants from Deloitte “to determine the destination of proceeds” from its joint ventures with MEHL, it said in a statement Friday..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
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Summary:
"In 2010, the first elections were held in Myanmar after 22 years of direct military rule.
Most Western observers had decided in advance that the polls would be a travesty. The
regime had been...
Description:
"In 2010, the first elections were held in Myanmar after 22 years of direct military rule.
Most Western observers had decided in advance that the polls would be a travesty. The
regime had been sanctioned and isolated following its refusal to transfer power to the
winner of elections held in 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung
San Suu Kyi. Instead the regime had pursued its own, visibly flawed “roadmap to
democracy.” The 2008 constitution was largely designed by the military and was imposed
through an implausible “referendum” – a 93.8% “yes” vote on a 98% turnout – in the
middle of a major natural disaster, Cyclone Nargis. The NLD boycotted the 2010
elections, though smaller opposition parties did participate. Unsurprisingly, the militarybacked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) secured approximately 60% of
the seats in both houses of parliament and captured all but one of the regional assemblies,
while the military took 25% of the seats in both national-level assemblies and one-third in
all the regional assemblies, as mandated by the constitution. Little change was expected
from what appeared to be a purely superficial exercise.
Yet, one year later, major reform was underway. The NLD had triumphed in byelections in April 2012, bringing Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament. Peace talks had begun with ethnic-minority insurgents. Peaceful gatherings and trade unions had been
legalised. Internet censorship eased..."
Source/publisher:
Journal of Contemporary Asia
Date of entry/update:
2020-03-04
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Burma/Myanmar's political parties, The Military's political role, The Burmese military's role in the economy
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
174.47 KB (27 pages)
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