Open Letter to the Biden Administration from 626 Myanmar & International Civil Society Organizations and over 220, 000 people of Myanmar

The Honourable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

May 4^th, 2022

 637 Myanmar & International Civil Society Organizations and over 220, 000 people call on the US to sanction Myanmar’s oil and gas revenues and stop the bankrolling of the genocidal military junta

On May 12-13, President Biden and ASEAN leaders will meet in Washington, DC and discuss the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. One year after the Myanmar military agreed to ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus, it has continued waging violence against the people of Myanmar, brutal crackdown on the people’s movement in defence of democracy and has consistently blocked humanitarian assistance that is urgently needed by millions of people across the country while attacking humanitarian and medical workers. ASEAN itself has made no progress on implementing its Five Point Consensus, which, though well-intentioned when first made, has degraded into mere talking points with no underlying substance or legitimacy.

The Biden Administration must move forward without relying on ASEAN to take the lead. Stopping the humanitarian crisis requires ensuring that the military does not have the resources necessary to perpetuate or scale up its attacks on the people of Myanmar.

As a priority next step, we call on the Biden Administration to listen to the voices of over  220,000 people and sanction the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). Since taking control of MOGE in February 2021, the military has seized an estimated USD 1.5 billion in gas revenues. The military’s continued access to these revenues enables its brutality and disincentivizes it from ending the coup.

The Myanmar people have called for sanctions on MOGE since the beginning of the coup. The United States has clearly stated that it aims to cut off the military’s access to revenue streams in the President’s Executive Order 14014, in announcements of sanctions on the military’s State Administrative Council and various state-owned enterprises, and in the Treasury Department’s January 2022 Business Advisory, among others. Sanctioning MOGE would be consistent with U.S. policy.

Neither the United States, ASEAN governments, nor the United Nations has recognized the military junta as the legitimate government of Myanmar. We applaud the ongoing diplomatic efforts to deny the junta the international recognition that it desires. However, we call on the United States to use the full force of its economic leverage to ensure that businesses cooperate with these diplomatic efforts and stop bankrolling the junta.

Throughout the coup, multinational oil and gas companies have aided and abetted the military junta in misappropriating revenues from offshore gas projects that are owed to the legitimate government of Myanmar and paid through MOGE. The military junta is not the recognized government of Myanmar and should not be entitled to access the government’s revenues or bank accounts. Just because it is convenient for gas companies to pay the military junta does not make it right.

The Biden Administration must act now:

1. Use sanctions to stop gas revenues from reaching the junta and work with allies in Thailand and South Korea ensure that these revenues are diverted into escrow accounts to be held for a legitimate, recognized government.
2. Enforce the Treasury Department’s January 2022 business advisory on Myanmar with respect to MOGE, communicating to gas companies and banks that gas revenue payments to the military will be considered money laundering, and that those failing to comply will face consequences.
3. Sanction the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB), a state-owned enterprise that for decades has laundered gas revenues and whose government accounts are once again in military hands.

We thank you for your attention and ask that you take these steps in support of democracy, justice, and human rights.

Sincerely,

637 Civil Society Organizations, Unions, and Strike Committees (local and international) in solidarity with the people of Myanmar & Myanmar diaspora communities around the world

ANNEXURE – Lists of Endorsing Organizations (Around the world)

1. 88 Generation Peace and Open Society
2. 8888 Generation (New Zealand)
3. Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (Sydney)
4. Action Committee of Basic Education Students (ACBES)
5. Action For Dignity And Development (ADD)
6. Activists group for Human Rights ‘BARAM’
7. Ah Nah Podcast – conversation with Myanmar
8. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC)
9. All Aung Myay Thar San Education Strike
10. All Burma Federation of Student Unions (Monywa District)
11. All Burma Federation Trade Unions (ABFTU)
12. All Burma Student Democratic Front – Australia Branch
13. All Kachin Youth Union -AKYU
14. All Sagaing Township Basic Education Students’ Union
15. All Schools of Aungmyaythazan Township Strike Group
16. All Young Burmese League (AYBL)
17. Alliance of Students’ Union – Yangon (ASU-Yangon)
18. Alternative Solutions for Rural Communities (ASORCOM)
19. ALTSEAN-Burma
20. Anti-coup Forces Coordination Committee (ACFCC -Mandalay)
21. Anti-Dictatorship in Burma – DC Metropolitan Area
22. Anti-Junta Alliance Yangon-AJAY
23. Anti-Myanmar Dictatorship Movement
24. Anti-Myanmar Military Dictatorship Network (AMMDN)
25. ANTS Fundraising Team
26. Asian Dignity Initiative
27. Athan- Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
28. Auckland Kachin Community Inc. (New Zealand)
29. Auckland Zomi Community (New Zealand)
30. Aung Myay Tharzan Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
31. Aung Pin Lal Main Strike Group
32. Australia Burma Friendship Association, Northern Territory
33. Australia Karen Organization WA Inc.
34. Australia Myanmar Doctors, Nurses and Friends
35. Australia Myanmar Youth Alliance (AMYA)
36. Australian Burmese Muslim Organization
37. Australian Chin Community (Eastern Melbourne Inc)
38. Australian Karen Organisation (AKO)
39. Ayeyarwaddy Karen Youth
40. Bago Basic Education Students’ Union
41. Bamar Community Tasmania
42. Bank Trade Unions Federation of Myanmar – BTUFM
43. Basic Education General Strike Committee (BEGSC)
44. Basic Education Student Affairs Federation (BESAF)
45. Basic Education Worker Unions – Steering Committee (BEWU-SC)
46. BEHS-1,Hpa-An Basic Education Students’ Union
47. BEHS-1,Mandalay Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
48. BEHS-11, Aungmyethazan Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
49. BEHS-24,Maha‌aungmyay Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
50. BEHS-4,Mandalay Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
51. BEHS-8, Aungmyethazan Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
52. Blood Money Campaign
53. Burma Campaign UK (United Kingdom)
54. Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
55. Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC)
56. Burmese Community – Australia
57. Burmese Community Development Collaboration (BCDC)
58. Burmese Community Support Group (BCSG)
59. Burmese Friendship Association
60. Burmese Medical Association Australia (BMAA)
61. Burmese Women’s Union
62. Campaign for a New Myanmar
63. Canberra Karen Association – Australia
64. CDM Medical Network (CDMMN)
65. CDM Pauk_Khaung Township Board
66. CDM Support Team Mandalay
67. CDMers of Chemical Technology Research Center
68. Chanayetharsan Basic Education Students’ Union
69. CHANGJAK21 – Korea
70. Chanmyatharzi Township People’s Strike
71. Chin Community of Auckland (New Zealand)
72. Chin Community of Western Australia Inc.
73. Chin Community South Australia
74. Chin Community Tasmania – Australia
75. Chin Leaders
76. Chin MATA Working Group
77. Chin Resources Center
78. Chin Youth Organization – Australia
79. Chindwin (West) Villages Women Strike
80. Citizen of Burma Award- New Zealand
81. Civil Information Network (CIN)
82. Civil Society Organizations Coordination Committee (Monywa)
83. Coalition of Mandalay Engineers
84. Coalition Strike Committee – Dawei
85. Committee Representing Mandalay Region Hllutaw- CRMH
86. Community Care Circle (3C)
87. Co-operative University Mandalay Students’ Strike
88. CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
89. CRPH Funding Ireland
90. CRPH Support Group, Norway
91. CRPH, NUG Support Team Germany- Deutschland
92. CRPH/NUG Support Group Australia
93. Daik-U Basic Education Students’ Union
94. Daung Sitthe Strike
95. Dawei (Ashaetaw) Women Strike
96. Dawei Basic Education Students’ Union
97. Dawei Youth’s Revolutionary Movement Strike Committee (DYRMSC)
98. Democracy for Burma – Australia
99. Democracy Movement Strike Committee (Dawei)
100. Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
101. Democratic Socialists of America
102. Democratic Youth Council
103. Demoso Basic Education Students’ Union
104. Depayin Township Revolution Steering Committee
105. Depayin Women Strike
106. DFW Myanmar Ethnic Community
107. Dragon Dawn
108. EarthRights International
109. Education Family Strike Group
110. Educational Initiatives
111. Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee (Mandalay)
112. ETOs Watch Coalition (Thai)
113. European Karen Network (EKN)
114. Falam Community – Australia
115. Family Private School Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
116. FAU Bielefeld
117. Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (New Zealand)
118. Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM)
119. Former Political Prisoners and New Generation Group – Monywa
120. Free Myanmar, Inc.
121. Free Rohingya Coalition
122. Freedom for Burma
123. Future Light Center
124. Gangaw Women Strike
125. General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
126. General Strike Committee of Basic and Higher Education (GSCBHE)
127. General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN)
128. General Strike Coordination Body (GSCB)
129. Generation Wave
130. German Solidarity with Myanmar Democracy e.V.
131. Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD)
132. Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Global)
133. Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Korea)
134. Hinthada Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
135. Hlaing Thar Yar Basic Education Students’ Union
136. Hopin Basic Education Students’ Union
137. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
138. Incorporated Organization Shilcheon Jogye
139. India For Myanmar
140. Industrial Training Centre (ITC) Family Sydney – Australia
141. Industries Strike
142. Info Birmanie – France
143. Inter-Faith Strike Column
144. Interfaith Youth Coalition on Aids in Myanmar (IYCA-Myanmar)
145. International Campaign for the Rohingya
146. Jivaka Medic Team
147. Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (JACDB)
148. Justice 4 Myanmar – Hope & Development
149. Justice For Myanmar
150. Justice Movement for Community – Innlay
151. Kachin Association of Australia WA Inc.
152. Kachin Human Rights Watch – KHRW
153. Kachin State Civilian Movement- KSCM
154. Kachin Student Union
155. Kalay Township Strike Force
156. Kalay Women Strike
157. Karen Community – Australia
158. Karen Environmental and Social Action Network
159. Karen Human Rights Group
160. Karen Organization of America
161. Karen Peace Support Network
162. Karen Sweden Community (KSC)
163. Karenni Federation of Australia
164. Karenni Society New Zealand
165. Karenni/ Kayah Community – Australia
166. Katha Basic Education Students’ Union
167. Kayan Internally Displacement Supervising Committee (KIDSC)
168. Kayin Community Tasmania – Australia
169. Kobe Myanmar Community
170. Korean House for International Solidarity
171. Kyaikhto Students’ Union (KSU)
172. Kyain Seikgyi Spring Revolution Leading Committee
173. Kyaukse Basic Education Students’ Union
174. Kyauktada Strike Committee (KSC)
175. LA COMMUNAUTÉ BIRMANE DE FRANCE
176. Labor Union Federation
177. Labutta Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
178. Langkho Basic Education Students’ Union
179. Lashio Basic Education Students’ Union
180. Latpadaung Region Strike Committee
181. Launglon Basic Education Students’ Union
182. Letpadan Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
183. LGBT Alliance – Myanmar
184. LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kalay Region)
185. LGBT Alliance Myanmar (Kyaukse Region)
186. LGBT Community Yangon
187. LGBT Union – Mandalay
188. LGBTIQ Strike Group
189. Los Angeles Myanmar Movement
190. Ma Thone Nae
191. Magway People’s Revolution Committee
192. Maharaungmyay Township People’s Strike
193. Mandalar College Students Strike Group
194. Mandalar University Students’ Strike
195. Mandalar University Students Union
196. Mandalay Alliance Coalition Strike
197. Mandalay Based University Students’ Unions
198. Mandalay Civil Society Organization
199. Mandalay Engineer Group (MEG)
200. Mandalay Medical Family (MFM)
201. Mandalay People Strike Group
202. Mandalay Poets’ Union
203. Mandalay Private Universities Students Union
204. Mandalay Strike Force (MSF)
205. Mandalay Technological University Students’ Union
206. Mandalay Universities, Degree and College Teachers and Staffs Strike Group
207. Mandalay University Alumni Strike Group
208. Mandalay University of Foreign Languages Students’ Union
209. Mandalay Wholesale Centers Strike Group
210. Mandalay Women Strike
211. Mandalay Youth Strike
212. Mandalay-Based People’s Strike
213. Mandalay-Based University Students’ Unions (MDY_SUs)
214. Matu Chin Community – Australia
215. Mawkmai Basic Education Students’ Union
216. Mawlamyine Basic Education Students’ Union
217. Medical Family Mandalay ( MFM )
218. Meikhtila Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
219. Mekong Watch
220. Metta Campaign
221. Midwifery Training School Students Union (Mandalay)
222. MilkTeaAlliance Calendar Team
223. MilkTeaAlliance Galleries
224. MilkTeaAlliance Thailand
225. Minbu Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
226. Mindat Chin Community NSW – Australia
227. Mindat Community – Australia
228. Ministry of Basic Education Department CDM Pauk_Khaung Township Board
229. Minority Affairs Institute – MAI
230. Mizo Community – Australia
231. Mogaung Basic Education Students’ Union
232. Mohnyin Basic Education Students’ Union
233. Mon Families Group – Australia
234. Mon National Council – Australia
235. Monywa Basic Education Students’ Union – ABFSU
236. Monywa LGBT Strike
237. Monywa Women Strike
238. Monywa-Amyint Road Women Strike
239. Mudon Basic Education Students’ Union
240. Mulsim Youth Network
241. Multi-Religions Strike
242. Muslim Youths Association
243. Mya Taung Strike
244. Myanmar Alliances for Transparency and Accountability – MATA
245. Myanmar Belgian Community
246. Myanmar Buddhist Community of South Australia
247. Myanmar Community Austria
248. Myanmar Community Coffs Harbour (MCC) – Australia
249. Myanmar Democracy and Peace Committee (Australia)
250. Myanmar Democratic Force
251. Myanmar Democratic Movement (MDM) – Australia
252. Myanmar Emergency Fund – Canada
253. Myanmar Engineering Association of Australia (MEAA)
254. Myanmar Engineers – New Zealand
255. Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization in Malaysia (MERHROM)
256. Myanmar Gonye (New Zealand)
257. Myanmar Hindu Organisation
258. Myanmar Institute of Information and Technology (Mandalay) Students Union
259. Myanmar Institute of Information Technology Students’ Strike
260. Myanmar Labor Alliance (MLA)
261. Myanmar People Residing in Canberra – Australia
262. Myanmar Professionals Association Australia (MPAA)
263. Myanmar Railway Division (3) CDM Staffs Strike Group
264. Myanmar Spring Revolution Supporters (South Korea)
265. Myanmar Students’ Association Australia (MSAA)
266. Myanmar Students’ Union in New Zealand
267. Myingyan Civillian Movement Committee
268. National League for Democracy (Mandalay Region)
269. National League for Democracy (Monywa Township)
270. National Support Team (NST)
271. National University of Arts and Culture (Mandalay) Students Union
272. Netherlands-Myanmar Solidarity Platform
273. Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
274. Network of University Student Unions – Monywa
275. New Generation Network for Social Change – Thai
276. New Zealand Doctors for NUG
277. New Zealand Karen Association
278. New Zealand Zo Community Inc.
279. NLD International Network
280. NLD Solidarity Association (Australia)
281. No (7) Basic Education High School Alumni Strike Group
282. No Business With Genocide
283. 12 Basic Education Branch High School (Maharaungmyay) Students’ Union
284. 12 Basic Education Middle School (High Branch) Basic Education Students’ Union
285. Nursing Training School Students’ Union (Mandalay)
286. Nyaunglebin Basic Education Students’ Union
287. OCTOPUS (Youth Organization)
288. Olive Organization
289. Overseas Mon Association. New Zealand
290. Padaung Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
291. Pale Township People’s Strike Steering Committee
292. PEC Private School Basic Education Students’ Union
293. People’s Initiative for Development Alternatives
294. People’s Embrace
295. Perth Myanmar Youth Network – Australia
296. Phayagyi Peace Strike Group
297. Private Pre-School Teachers’ Association
298. Progressive Voice
299. PWVB (Patriotic War Veterans of Burma) – Australia
300. Pyay Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
301. Pyay Under Ground News (PUGN)
302. Pyigyidagon Strike
303. Pyin Nyar Nan Daw Private School Basic Education Students’ Union
304. Pyin Oo Lwin Basic Education Students’ Union
305. Pyinmana Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
306. Pyithu Gonye (New Zealand)
307. Queensland Kachin Community (QKC) – Australia
308. Queensland Myanmar Youth Collective (QMYC) – Australia
309. Queensland Rohingya Community – Australia
310. Red Campaign Nirvana Exhortation Group- Australia
311. Remonya Association of WA (Mon Community) – Australia
312. Representative Committee of University Teacher Associations (RC of UTAs)
313. Representing The Arrested People Strike
314. RiseAgainMyanmar – Korea
315. Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
316. Rvwang Community Association New Zealand
317. Samgha Sammaga-Mandalay
318. Sangha Union Strike Group
319. Save Myanmar (San Francisco)
320. Save Myanmar (USA)
321. Save Myanmar Fund (New Zealand)
322. Sein Pann Strike
323. Shan Community (New Zealand)
324. Shan MATA
325. ShizuYouth for Myanmar
326. Shwe Youth Democratic Alliance (SYDA) – Australia
327. Sintgaing Basic Education Students’ Union
328. Sisters 2 Sisters
329. Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
330. Society of Young Social Innovators (SYSI) – Thai
331. Southcare Medical Centre
332. Southern Youth Development Organization
333. Spring Revolution Interfaith Network (SRIN)
334. Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network – SRMMN
335. Spring Revolution Sangha Network& SRIN
336. Students for Free Burma (SFB)
337. Support for Myanmar- Australia
338. Support Group for Democracy in Myanmar (Netherlands)
339. Sydney Friends for Myanmar Unity- Australia
340. Synergy- Social Harmony Organization
341. Taekwondo Federation
342. Tampawadi People Strike Group
343. Taunggyi Basic Education Students’ Union
344. Taze Women Strike
345. Technological Teachers’ Federation-TTF
346. Technological University (Yadanabon Cyber City) Students’ Union
347. Technological University Mandalay (TUM) Students’ Union
348. Tha Pyay Nyo Periodical
349. Thai Volunteer Service – Thai
350. Thakhin Kodaw Mhine Peace Network (Monywa)
351. Thaton Basic Education Students’ Union
352. Thayat Chaung Women Strike
353. The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society (Monywa)
354. The Declaration of Global Citizen
355. The Institution of Professional Engineers Myanmar – Australia
356. Transparency International Czech Republic
357. Twitter Team for Revolution
358. United Myanmar Community of South Australia
359. University of Computer Studies (Mandalay) Students Union
360. University of Dental Medicine (Mandalay) Students Union
361. University of Medical Technology ( Mandalay) Students Union
362. University of Medicine ( Mandalay) Students Union
363. University of Nursing ( Mandalay) Students Union
364. University of Pharmacy ( Mandalay) Students Union
365. University of Traditional Medicine ( Mandalay) Students Union
366. University Students’ Unions Alumni Force
367. US Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar (USACM)
368. VEC Private School Basic Education Students’ Union
369. Victorian Burmese Care Community (VBCC) – Australia
370. Victorian Myanmar Youth – Australia
371. Way Way Nay
372. We Change
373. We Pledge CDM (Australia)
374. Western Australia Myanmar Democratic Network
375. Wetlet Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
376. Wetlet Revolution Leading Committee
377. Wetlet Township Women Strike
378. White Coat Society Yangon (WCSY)
379. Women Activists Myanmar (WAM) – Australia
380. Women Advocacy Coalition- Myanmar
381. Women Alliance Burma (WAB)
382. Women’s League of Burma (WLB)
383. Wundwin Basic Education Students’ Union – ABFSU
384. Yadanabon University Students Union
385. Yadanar Foundation – Austalia
386. Yangon Deaf Association
387. Yangon Medical Network
388. Yangon Women Strike
389. Yedashe Basic Education Students’ Union – ABFSU
390. YG Network
391. Yinmarpin and Salingyi All Villages Strike Committee
392. Youth Network (Tanintharyi )
393. Youth Poets’ Union
394. YUOE Debate Club
395. Zabuthiri Basic Education Students’ Union-ABFSU
396. Zo Community – Australia
397. Zomi Association Australia Inc.
398. Zomi Community Queensland
399. Zomi Community South Australia
400. ကယ်တင်ရှင်မရှာ ဒိုကျေးရွာ သပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
401. တော်လှန်စုပေါင်း ရွှေစုန်းချောင်း သပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
402. ဒီပဲယင်းမြို့နယ်လူထုသပိတ် ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
403. ပုလဲမြို့နယ်လူထုသပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
404. မုံရွာတက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ
405. မုံရွာလူထု သပိတ်တိုက်ပွဲ ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
406. မုံရွာ-အမြင့်လမ်း လူထုသပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
407. ယင်းမာပင်မြို့နယ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ(ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်)
408. ယင်းမာပင်မြောက်ခြမ်း ကျေးရွာ(၃)ရွာပေါင်း လူထုသပိတ် ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
409. လက်ပံတောင်းတောင်ဒေသခံလူထုသပိတ် ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
410. လက်ပံတောင်းတောင်ဒေသလူထုပင်မသပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
411. လက်ပံတောင်းဒေသ ကျေးရွာတစ်ရွာ လူထုသပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
412. သွေးမအေးတဲ့ရွှေနွယ်သွေး သပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
413. အရာတော်မြို့နယ် လူထုသပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
414. အောင်လံလွှင့်မည် ရွှေရေကြည် သပိတ်ဦးဆောင်ကော်မတီ
415. (223) Organizations in Myanmar endorsed for this open letter. Due to the continuous oppressions and serious human rights abuses of the Military junta and for the safety of the organisation’s members, we will not disclose the name of these organisations.

Burmese version.

Pictorial Essay for BMC Open Letter May 4 2022

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