Justice For Myanmar welcomes sanctions imposed by the EU on members of the terrorist Myanmar military junta, its arms brokers and jet fuel suppliers, more than two years after the military’s illegal coup attempt.

Arms brokers targeted in the latest round of sanctions include Aung Hlaing Oo, Sit Taing Aung and Kyaw Min Oo, along with the companies Dynasty International, International Gateways Group and Sky Aviator Company Limited.

Aung Hlaing Oo and Dynasty International have both had business with EU companies, and future activities will be prevented through these sanctions.

Aung Hlaing Oo has been a longstanding business partner of the Finnish energy corporation, Wärtsilä, and won two junta power plant tenders in 2022 in a consortium with Dongfeng Electric International Corporation. Wärtsila have told Justice For Myanmar they ended business with MCM after US sanctions, but refused to disclose details.

Dynasty International brokered the supply and maintenance of G120TP aircraft from the German corporation, Grob Aircraft SE. In response to recent questions in parliament from Die Linke, the German government stated they are not aware of the sale of Grob G120TP aircraft to the Myanmar Air Force.

The EU has also importantly designated Asia Sun Group, which brokers the supply of jet fuel to the junta and stands complicit in its international crimes. This will help disrupt the supply of jet fuel to the junta, which it needs for its continued indiscriminate airstrikes.

The new designations fill major gaps in the EU’s sanctions regime, targeting key arms brokers and military institutions.

These include the Myanmar military’s Office of the Quarter Master General, Directorate of Procurement and Directorate of Defence Industries, which were sanctioned by the US, UK and Canada in December 2021 and January 2022.

The new EU sanctions come as the people of Myanmar continue to courageously resist the junta in the face of its nationwide campaign of terror, ensuring its attempted coup fails.

The junta’s response to mass resistance has been the continued commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, murdering over 3,000 people, arbitrarily arresting over 19,000 more, displacing 1.1 million people and carrying out indiscriminate attacks across Myanmar, enabled by the supply of funds, arms and jet fuel.

Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “We welcome the latest round of sanctions from the EU, targeting junta members and agencies, along with their arms brokers and jet fuel suppliers, which are complicit in ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“The people of Myanmar have sustained mass resistance to the military’s brutal and illegal coup attempt and its campaign of terror, ensuring that the coup and the junta’s sham so-called ‘elections’ will not succeed.

“While these latest sanctions are a positive step in cutting the junta’s access to resources, far more needs to be done to coordinate sanctions that systematically target the junta’s sources of revenue, arms and jet fuel.

“In particular, we call on the US to follow the EU, UK and Canada in targeting the military’s jet fuel supply chain, and we call on the US, UK and Canada to follow the EU and swiftly sanction Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, which is the junta’s biggest source of foreign revenue.

“The EU needs to urgently expand its sanctions to target more individuals and businesses that enable the junta’s access to funds and arms, in coordination with its allies.

“Democracies in the region, including Japan, South Korea and India, must also step up, end business with the junta, and impose targeted sanctions on the junta and its conglomerates.”

More information:

See our data on Asia Sun Group here, and read Amnesty International’s Deadly Cargo report, with research supported by Justice For Myanmar

Read our report on Aung Hlaing Oo, Sit Taing Aung and Sky Aviator’s arms brokering activities in our feature here

Read more about Sky Aviator’s arms brokering activities here

Read our investigation into International Gateways Group here

Read about the international businesses linked to the Office of the Quarter Master General here

Download press release in English | Burmese

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