Distinguished human rights consultants urge international locations to take motion towards firms serving to Myanmar’s army produce weapons utilized in abuses.
Corporations in the USA, Europe and Asia have been serving to Myanmar’s army manufacture weapons utilized in human rights abuses, in response to three former United Nations consultants.
Corporations from 13 international locations – together with France, Germany, China, India, Russia, Singapore and the USA – have been offering provides which might be “crucial” to the manufacturing of weapons in Myanmar, the Particular Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) mentioned in a report launched on Monday.
This assist contains licenses, uncooked supplies, software program, components and elements, the consultants mentioned.
Consequently, the Myanmar army, which has launched a bloody crackdown on its opposition after seizing energy in a coup in February 2021, has turn into largely self-sufficient in manufacturing a spread of weapons, they mentioned. Produced in factories generally known as KaPaSa and run by the army’s Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI), these weapons embrace weapons, ammunition and landmines and are primarily getting used to quash resistance to the coup, the SAC-M mentioned.
“Overseas firms are enabling the Myanmar army – one of many world’s worst human rights abusers – to supply lots of the weapons it makes use of to commit each day atrocities towards the Myanmar folks,” the SAC-M’s Yanghee Lee, a former UN Particular Rapporteur on the scenario of human rights in Myanmar, mentioned in a assertion.
“Overseas firms and their house states have ethical and authorized tasks to make sure their merchandise should not facilitating human rights violations towards civilians in Myanmar,” Lee mentioned. “Failing to take action makes them complicit within the Myanmar army’s barbaric crimes.”
The report (PDF) drew on a spread of sources, together with interviews with folks related to the Myanmar army in addition to leaked price range paperwork from the Ministry of Defence.
It discovered that top precision machines manufactured by firms primarily based in Austria, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the US are presently being utilized by the Myanmar army at its weapons factories. These automated instruments have turning, milling and grinding capabilities and play a crucial function within the manufacturing of weapons, the report mentioned.
Software program to function these machines is being supplied by firms primarily based in France, Israel and Germany, it mentioned.
Singapore, in the meantime, capabilities as a strategic transit level for probably important volumes of things, together with sure uncooked supplies, that feed the Myanmar army’s weapons manufacturing, and Taiwan is believed to function an essential route for the army’s buy of the excessive precision machines, the report mentioned.
The army additionally commonly sends these machines from KaPaSa factories to Taiwan, the place they're serviced by technicians related to the European producers of the machines, after which they're shipped again to Myanmar, it alleged.
Corporations in China, such because the state-owned China North Industries Group Company Restricted, are key to the import of uncooked supplies used for arms manufacturing whereas corporations in India are serving to with the imports of components and elements comparable to optical sights fitted to small arms comparable to sniper rifles, the report discovered.
“States should examine and, if crucial, provoke administrative or authorized proceedings towards firms whose merchandise we've got recognized as enabling the DDI to supply weapons utilized by the Myanmar army in its indiscriminate assaults on civilians,” the SAC-M’s Chris Sidoti, a former member of the UN Unbiased worldwide fact-finding mission on Myanmar, mentioned.
“Overseas firms that revenue from the struggling of the Myanmar folks have to be held accountable,” he mentioned.
The report additionally detailed cases of the army’s use of regionally made weapons towards Myanmar’s folks, comparable to crackdowns on peaceable protests towards the coup, and warned that firms concerned within the provision or provide of important merchandise to the DDI could also be discovered complicit in these and different atrocities dedicated by the nation’s safety forces.
“The Myanmar army has constructed a strong arms manufacturing trade that makes it largely self-sufficient in its means to supply the small arms, mild weapons and ammunition it makes use of to brutally suppress the Myanmar folks,” mentioned Marzuki Darusman of the SAC-M.
“Nevertheless, the DDI’s reliance on exterior provides to maintain its weapon manufacturing means it's nonetheless weak to exterior stress,” Darusman, a former chair of the UN unbiased worldwide fact-finding mission on Myanmar, mentioned.
“UN member states ought to do every part of their energy to limit the Myanmar army’s entry to these provides to guard the Myanmar folks, together with by adopting focused sanctions towards the KaPaSa, its management and its community of brokers.”
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