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(NEW YORK) – The United States, the European Union, and other governments should urgently crack down on aid Myanmar Human Rights Watch said today that the military is evading sanctions imposed after the 2021 coup. UN report A report released on June 26, 2024 showed that since 2022, the military junta has changed banks used to receive foreign revenues and pay for weapons and other military needs after the United States, the European Union and other governments imposed sanctions on military-controlled entities and banks.
The report, by Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, focuses on the military’s use of third-country banks for sanctioned transactions. The Special Rapporteur found that from 2022 to date, most of the junta’s foreign exchange earnings, which were originally remitted to foreign accounts at the sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank of Myanmar, have now been remitted to accounts at the Economic Bank of Myanmar, which is not sanctioned but also controlled by the junta. The report also shows that after Singaporean authorities began restricting the military’s use of banks to purchase weapons in 2022-2023, the junta significantly increased its use of other accounts in Thai banks, most of which were at the Commercial Bank of Thailand.
“Sanctions on the Myanmar military have reduced its ability to generate revenue and purchase weapons, but money is still flowing to the junta, so strict enforcement is crucial,” John SiftonAsia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities in Thailand, Singapore, and other countries need to remind banks that they should not provide services that help further the military’s atrocities.”
Figures provided by the UN report show that the military junta’s largest source of external income still comes from Thailand: at least $660 million Natural gas is transported to Thailand via pipelineThe Thai state-owned energy company PTT made the payments to the military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on MOGE, and banks in many other jurisdictions have also implemented some of the US and EU sanctions, including Singapore and China, as many of these banks operate internationally and have close ties to the US and EU financial systems.
All Thai banks named in the PTT and UN reports should stop paying MOGE and move future payments into escrow, Human Rights Watch said. Governments should call on Thailand to instruct Thai companies to end transactions with MOGE.
The UN report shows that sanctions have hampered the military junta’s ability to make military purchases. Between March 2022 and March 2023, the military’s use of the international banking system to purchase weapons and military supplies fell by 33%, from $377 million to $253 million. Between 2022 and 2024, the use of military procurement agents and banks in Singapore, Malaysia and Russia all fell sharply.
During the same period, however, payments to Thai banks and military suppliers registered in Thailand doubled, from about $60 million to nearly $130 million. Most of these payments, more than $100 million, were processed by Thai commercial banks.
For many years, the Myanmar military has War crimes and other atrocities committed in armed conflict with ethnic armed groups, and serious human rights violations against civilians. It has committed atrocities and ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, including Crimes against humanity and acts of genocide in 2017. Since the 2021 coup, the military has been waging a massive crackdown on civilians who oppose its rule and has committed numerous war crimes in its battles with the armed opposition. Despite years of abuses, the international community’s response has been minimal, Human Rights Watch said.
The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has risen to 18.6 million amid Myanmar’s economic and infrastructure collapse. The United Nations estimates that 10,000 children under the age of five died in 2023 due to lack of malnutrition treatment. More than 2.7 million people are internally displaced or refugees. But the military has stepped up its deadly obstruction of humanitarian aid as a means of Collective punishment The blockades support the military’s long-standing “four cuts” strategy, which aims to maintain control over a region by isolating and terrorizing civilians.
Human Rights Watch said that cutting the Burmese military’s funding and limiting its ability to purchase weapons is essential to limiting abuses. The United States, the European Union, and other concerned governments should quickly sanction the Economic Bank of Myanmar (which currently handles most of the military’s banking transactions at the international level), the Agricultural Development Bank of Myanmar, and the Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank. The United States, Canada, and Australia have already imposed sanctions on some of these banks, while the European Union and the United Kingdom have not yet imposed sanctions on any of them.
Governments should also sanction the networks that supply aviation fuel to the Myanmar military, including insurance companies and trading companies, owners of storage facilities and transport vessels, and agents and buyers in Myanmar. Governments should also establish cooperation agreements on sanctions and coordinate their implementation and enforcement.
“All Burmese state-owned and military-controlled financial institutions and companies should be sanctioned,” Sifton said. “Depriving the junta of revenue and banking services will weaken the military’s ability to brutalize the Burmese people.”
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