A human rights group has urged the European Union to better track where its products end up, after a report showed that EU firms have been providing supplies “critical” to arms production in Myanmar.
Companies from at least 13 countries, including France, Germany and Austria, were named in the January 2023 report by Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), an independent group of former UN officials seeking to fight for human rights, justice and accountability in Myanmar.
“Foreign companies and their home states have moral and legal responsibilities to ensure their products are not facilitating human rights violations against civilians in Myanmar,” said Yanghee Lee, former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, and a founding member of SAC-M.
“Failing to do so makes them complicit in the Myanmar military’s barbaric crimes.”
Coordinator for SAC-M Isabelle Todd said the companies and their governments had not yet responded to the report, likely because they were unaware their products were being used by Myanmar’s junta, which seized power nearly two years ago when it ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
“These supply chains are quite complex. People who are buying these products aren’t necessarily who they say they are,” Todd said.
“But companies should ramp up tracking their products once they’ve been sold in order to minimise the risk of their products being used in human rights violations.”
The coup in Myanmar led to the EU imposing sanctions on individuals and private firms linked to the military, including Myanmar’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Kan Zaw and the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.
Those on the bloc’s sanctions list are subjected to an asset freeze, a travel ban to EU territories and cannot receive any EU funds.
The 27-member bloc also imposed an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression in Myanmar, an export ban of dual-use goods for use by the military and border guard police, export restrictions on equipment for monitoring communications that could be used for internal repression, and a prohibition on military training and military cooperation with the Tatmadaw.
In May 2021, the EU passed a regulation which controls exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items – goods, software and technology that can be used for both civilian and military applications.
Todd said European firms should adhere to those rules since it was the EU’s primary tool to prevent companies from supporting groups like the Tatmadaw.
“The products that we’ve identified coming from European companies are things like Computer Numerical Control machines that are used to manufacture weapons and those are covered by the dual-use goods regulation.
“So it’s a matter of the EU ensuring that its member states are doing everything they can to ensure that the dual-use goods regulation is being properly complied with by companies,” she said.
The EU should also impose further sanctions on the Myanmar Military Directorate of Defence Industries, a network of factories inside Myanmar producing these weapons, she added.
EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said if the allegations made about these foreign companies were verified, it would be the responsibility of the competent authorities in the EU member states in which the companies are registered to assess if there had been a breach of sanctions and take adequate steps.
“The implementation of sanctions falls under the responsibility of EU member states,” she said.
The EU has reassessed its relations with Myanmar since the coup, but has so far not curtailed Myanmar’s trade privileges in order to avoid hurting the poorest workers in textiles.
A report by the World Bank’s Economic Monitor showed about 40 per cent of the population in Myanmar lived below the national poverty line in 2022.
The EU’s “Everything But Arms” scheme continues to benefit Myanmar, allowing duty- and quota-free access for all exports, except arms and ammunition to the EU.
Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for the activist group Justice For Myanmar, said the international community needed to urgently take concrete steps to cut the junta’s access to arms and funds which sustained its campaign of terror against civilians in Myanmar.
“This business as usual approach has been made possible because of a lack of coordinated international action against the Myanmar military,” he said, adding that a global arms embargo should also be imposed and countries should start recognising and supporting the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar.
The NUG is Myanmar’s government in exile and was established in April 2021 by government officials who were ousted in the February 2021 coup. So far, only the European Parliament has recognised it as the “legitimate government of Myanmar”.
Massrali said the bloc supported the people of Myanmar and a return to democracy in the country through various international accountability mechanisms in order to bring those responsible for human rights violations and crimes against humanity to justice.
Matthew Smith, CEO and co-founder of the NGO Fortify Rights, said the EU and governments around the world needed to do more to understand how the situation in Myanmar was interconnected with other crises.
“The EU currently focusing on the war in Ukraine makes sense in light of war crimes and other atrocities by Russian forces. But Putin and his armed forces have long been close allies of the Myanmar military junta,” he said.
“Russia has been providing the military junta in Myanmar with political protection over the years, essentially enabling war crimes.
“I expect the EU and other governments to connect these dots and understand that there are these unsavory ties and criminal links which need to be dealt with better, in order to address the crisis in Myanmar.”