Mizzima-June 30
A new report by Tom Andrews, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, identifies Australian and US sanctions on Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB) as the most impactful sanctions on Myanmar’s repressive State Administration Council (SAC) in the past year, the Myanmar Campaign Network (MCN) reported this week. Australia’s sanctions in February this year bolstered earlier measures by the United States and Canada. Despite progress, the report highlights critical gaps in international sanctions coordination that the junta continues to exploit. “Banking on the Death Trade: How Banks and Governments Enable the Military Junta in Myanmar”, presented at the Fifty-sixth session of the UN Human Rights Council, shows that international action has effectively reduced the SAC’s acquisition of weapons, dual-use technologies, manufacturing equipment, and materials via the formal international financial system by one-third, from US$377 million to $253 million in just a year. However, two other state-owned banks, Myanma Economic Bank and Myanma Agricultural Development Bank, full networks in the jet fuel supply chain, and other high-impact targets such as natural resource state-owned enterprises remain unsanctioned. These gaps have allowed the junta to shift financial institutions and circumvent sanctions. Following Singapore’s 2023 investigation into weapons transfers from Singapore-based entities, arms exports from Singapore have significantly decreased. However, 16 banks in seven countries have allegedly facilitated the junta’s military procurement, and 25 banks have provided correspondent banking services to Myanmar’s state-owned banks since the coup. This has allegedly allowed Thailand has become the leading source of military supplies for the SAC, with transactions doubling from $60 million in FY2022 to $120 million in FY2023. Read more at:
