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.”

More information:

Access the full story on the JFM website

Explore our data on this issue. JFM has compiled detailed lists identifying Myanmar and Singapore registered companies involved in brokering arms, equipment and finance to the Myanmar military and their directors and shareholders.

The companies and individuals have been categorised based on the time period of their known activities.

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