Irrawaddy-Aug 11
Justice for Myanmar (JFM), a group of activists monitoring the business interests of the Myanmar military, has called on Singapore to take immediate action against companies that broker the supply of arms and equipment to the junta. Some 116 companies based in Singapore and Myanmar have brokered the supply of weapons and other equipment worth many millions of US dollars to the Myanmar military. Linked to the total of 78 Myanmar-based companies supplying the military are at least 38 subsidiary or associated companies in Singapore, JFM said in a report released on Thursday. JFM called 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. “So far only a few of the companies supplying arms and equipment to the junta have been sanctioned. The vast majority are continuing to operate freely. This is unacceptable,” said JFM spokesperson Ma Yadanar Maung. Singapore has significant power to end the military regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, but it will remain complicit in the junta’s atrocities if it fails to take meaningful action, she added. At least 2,158 civilians have died at the hands of the junta since last year’s coup, while over 15,000 people have been detained. Approximately 860,000 people have been displaced by junta raids and arson attacks, said JFM, citing the records of other independent civil society organizations. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/singapore-told-to-clampdown-on-companies-supplying-myanmar-military.html
