Fueling Myanmar’s Terror
“If the aviation fuel is not sold, if the international [community] and companies do not sell the aviation fuel to [the] military junta, we would not have to suffer…I request the international community, companies, and the brokers to not just think about money…With the aviation fuel you sold, the military junta is using planes to kill the people, even the innocent children.”
With junta airstrikes having increased five-fold over the past six months, the international community has blood on its hands. Because of the world’s inaction, lack of coordination, and outright facilitation by countries like China and Vietnam, the military junta is still receiving aviation fuel and weapons, which it uses to deliberately bomb Myanmar’s civilians countrywide. The world must immediately impose a comprehensive embargo on arms, aviation fuel, and dual-use goods to Myanmar, complete with targeted sanctions and well-coordinated enforcement, to keep these supplies out of the junta’s hands and save lives.
On 8 July, Amnesty International raised the alarm that the junta has received “at least two, and likely three, shipments of aviation fuel” between January and June 2024. These shipments reveal the same evasive tactics used by the junta throughout 2023—already exposed by Amnesty International in January 2024. For all shipments, the fuel was bought and resold multiple times before reaching Myanmar, in a clear attempt to evade sanctions by obfuscating the fuel’s origin and destination.
Particularly jarring is the junta’s repeated reliance on the same Chinese-owned vessel and the same Vietnamese companies for multiple shipments since early 2023. Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnès Callamard stated, “It is a raw display of both the sheer impunity with which the Myanmar military is operating, and the utter complicity of the states responsible, including Viet Nam, China and Singapore.”
Also highlighting the international facilitation of the junta’s war of terror against the people is a recent report of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. According to his report, while the Singapore Government’s enhanced due diligence resulted in a dramatic drop in weapons transfers to the junta by Singapore-based entities, this gap has been filled by other neighboring countries. To the UN Human Rights Council on 4 July, the Special Rapporteur emphasized, “We now have clear evidence that actions taken by the international community to isolate the junta and degrade their capacity to attack civilians are working…But more must be done now.” In releasing his report, he called on states to “step up by fully coordinating their actions, including by closing loopholes in sanctions regimes.”
Alongside his urgent call to action for states, the Special Rapporteur also called on “financial institutions [to] take their human rights obligations seriously and not facilitate the junta’s deadly transactions.” To provide further details, the Special Rapporteur spoke to the Thailand’s Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy, and National Reform on 11 July. He “strongly urge[d] the government of Thailand to publicly declare its opposition to the transfer of weapons materials to Myanmar and to take immediate action toward ending the involvement of Thai companies and Thai banks in the Myanmar death trade.”
Echoing the Special Rapporteur, on 15 July, 240 Myanmar and international organizations, including Progressive Voice, released a statement reiterating that “international actions can effectively disrupt the military junta’s supply chains,” but more must be done to end the junta’s access to aviation fuel through Myanmar’s neighboring countries—including China as a permanent member of UN Security Council and Thailand as a member of ASEAN which claims to prioritize the cessation of violence under the Five-Point Consensus. Many countries have not only failed to comply with their international obligations, but are also complicit in the military’s atrocity crimes. Alongside calls for governments, companies, and banks to stop backing the junta, the 240 organizations urged the international community to immediately coordinate sanctions on Myanmar-based junta-run financial institutions and impose full sanctions on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise—the biggest source of revenue for the junta’s countrywide terror campaign.
This joint statement follows an open letter to United States President Joe Biden on 28 June, highlighting the exponential increase in junta airstrikes against civilian targets since the coup attempt. In the letter, 228 organizations, including Progressive Voice, urged the US to “lead coordinated action within the international community to cut off the junta’s ability to purchase aviation fuel and supplies.”
Going forward, the international community has no reasonable choice but to act by immediately imposing a comprehensive embargo on arms, aviation fuel, and dual-use goods directed to Myanmar. To ban all sales, transfers, and diversions of these supplies to the military junta, the comprehensive embargo must include coordinated and targeted sanctions against all nodes of the supply chains enabling the junta’s heinous international crimes. Efforts to enforce these sanctions, including those already imposed, must be well coordinated both across countries and among domestic agencies in each implementing country.
With each passing day, more and more lives of Myanmar’s people are violently torn away by the junta’s airstrikes and its wider campaign of terror, which could be prevented by the international community. In this regard, the joint press statement delivered by the US Mission to UN on 15 July has absolutely no effect in stopping the junta’s nationwide terror campaign. To protect civilians across Myanmar, there is no time to waste, and rhetoric by these countries must be transformed into action. The people of Myanmar deserve that much.
In the words of a teacher who survived a junta airstrike on her school in Sagaing Region, “If the aviation fuel is not sold, if the international [community] and companies do not sell the aviation fuel to [the] military junta, we would not have to suffer…I request the international community, companies, and the brokers to not just think about money…With the aviation fuel you sold, the military junta is using planes to kill the people, even the innocent children.”
[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
Myanmar: ‘Reckless’ shipments of jet fuel continue as air strikes multiply
By Amnesty International
By Fortify Rights
Meeks Celebrates Committee Passage of Bipartisan Rohingya GAP Act
By House Foreign Affairs Committee
By Justice for Myanmar and Mekong Watch
By National Unity Government and Ministry of Human Rights
By Sisters 2 Sisters
US should enforce jet fuel sanctions on Myanmar
By The Sentry and Justice for Myanmar
Renewed atrocities against Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar
By Women’s Peace Network
Reports
Burma Coup Watch for the Month of June 2024: Airstrikes Set to Double, Women Conscripted into Army
By ALTSEAN-Burma, Asia Democracy Network, Asia Forum for Human Rights and Development, Burma Human Rights Network, Initiatives for International Dialogue, International Federation for Human Rights, Progressive Voice, US Campaign for Burma and Women’s Peace Network
မြန်မာ့အမျိုးသမီးသမဂ္ဂ၏ ၂၀၂၄ခုနှစ် ဇွန်လအတွင်း အမျိုးသမီးများဆိုင်ရာအချက်အလက်
By Burmese Women’s Union
By Karen Human Rights Group
Renewed atrocities against Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar
By Women’s Peace Network
Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”
