"ASEAN: Act to Stop Myanmar Military Abuses" 1 November 2022

Governments attending summits in Asia in November 2022 should support tougher sanctions and other measures to address widespread abuses by Myanmar’s military, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments should agree on new measures to cut off the Myanmar junta’s foreign currency revenues and impose embargos on arms and aviation fuel.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet November 10-13 in Cambodia for the ASEAN Summit and side meetings with the United States, the European Union, Japan, and other dialogue partners. The summit will be followed by a G20 leaders meeting in Indonesia and a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group the following week.

[...]

ASEAN members and like-minded G20 and APEC leaders should agree on a stronger message to send to the Myanmar junta on consequences for ongoing rights violations. Sanctions should be tied to clear benchmarks, including the release of political prisoners, a cessation of attacks on civilians, and steps toward the establishment of civilian democratic rule, among other actions.

[...]

ASEAN should also signal support for stronger enforcement of economic measures targeting the junta’s revenues, much of which are paid or held in US, British, and EU currencies.

Since the coup, the US, EU, and several other governments have imposed rounds of targeted sanctions on the Myanmar military and military-owned businesses. In February, the EU adopted new sanctions against Myanmar’s military-owned Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), but the US and United Kingdom have not followed suit.

The US and UK governments have also not pursued stronger actions at the UN. In October, the UK government began distributing drafts of a resolution on Myanmar among members of the UN Security Council, but they and other supportive members have not advanced debate on it in the face of certain opposition by the governments of Russia and China. Min Aung Hlaing has visited Russia three times since the coup and Russia has increased exports to Myanmar of military aircraft, fuel, and weapons.

Some foreign officials have contended in meetings with Human Rights Watch that US and EU sanctions on the military are ineffectual and have not affected the junta’s actions. But the sanctions imposed so far have primarily targeted domestic businesses controlled by the junta inside the country and revenues collected and held in Myanmar banks, which are beyond the reach of outside sanctions. Hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign revenues from natural gas and mining continue to flow into the junta’s bank accounts, including from Thailand and China and via companies in Malaysia, Singapore, and other ASEAN countries.

Chinese companies in particular, including state-owned companies, have continued to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of gas, metals, and precious stones and gems. The junta can use these foreign revenues to buy arms, materiel, and aviation fuel to carry out unlawful attacks during military operations.

ASEAN governments should support the sanctions, help enforce them, and use their interactions with the junta to communicate the steps they need to take to have them eased. Thailand’s government, which is closer to Myanmar diplomatically and economically, is especially important in this regard. ASEAN and its dialogue partners, as well as G20 members meeting after ASEAN, should also agree to enforce other economic restrictions more rigorously, including anti-money laundering laws, on bank accounts controlled by the junta. Myanmar military-controlled entities hold foreign currency accounts in banks in Singapore and Thailand, among other locations.

[...]