Burmese Military Companies Must Not Benefit from Earthquake Reconstruction

Burma Campaign UK today called on international investors, United Nations agencies and international humanitarian organisations operating in Burma to ensure that companies owned by the Burmese military do not benefit from earthquake reconstruction efforts.

It is vital that donations provided to assist earthquake victims in one part of Burma do not help finance Burmese military bombs being dropped in another part of Burma.

The Burmese military has leapfrogged to a focus on the reconstruction stage without coming close to addressing the urgent needs of those who have lost their homes and jobs following the devastating earthquake which struck Burma on 28^th March 2025.

The Burmese military has already leveraged the earthquake to try to gain international legitimacy, and also to secure significant international donations and pledges for reconstruction. Now, the Burmese military will seek to ‘cash in’ on the earthquake through the large number of companies it owns or has stakes or financial interests in.

This includes cement, steel and other industries, and well-known brands such as Rhino Cement, Sinn Min Cement and Flying Horse Cement, as well as Tristar steel. With cement prices more than double what they were pre-earthquake, the military can expect to financially benefit from reconstruction efforts.

Burma Campaign UK calls on international investors, United Nations agencies and international humanitarian organisations to have policies in place to ensure that they do not purchase any goods or services from Burmese military-owned or controlled companies. This should be a standard policy anyway, not only regarding the earthquake.

Aside from the moral imperative to ensure international companies and non-governmental organisations do not purchase goods and services from Burmese military companies, if there were to be a scandal in which it was revealed that international aid was used to purchase goods from a military-owned company, it would undermine public confidence in donating.

Burma Campaign UK has produced a ‘Boycott List’ of military-owned company brands to help governments, organisations and individuals avoid military-owned companies, and information on military economic interests is available on the Justice For Myanmar website and in the United Nations Fact Finding Mission report. Links are below.

No Burmese military company has a monopoly in any sector in the same way that they did 15 years ago. There are alternatives to military-owned company products and services.

There are many challenges and sensitivities for humanitarian organisations operating in the parts of Burma currently occupied by the Burmese military, and also risks for local partners, which may make it unsafe to make public statements about avoiding military companies. Such policies should be followed privately regardless.

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