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Article

25 Jan 2023

Author:
Al Jazeera

Myanmar: Norway's sovereign wealth fund drops AviChina & Bharat Electronics for selling weapons to junta

"China, India firms dropped by Norway fund over Myanmar weapons", 25 January 2023

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has excluded two companies from China and India for selling light combat aircraft and a weapons system to military-ruled Myanmar.

Norges Bank Investment Management said it had divested from AviChina Industry & Technology and Bharat Electronics due to the “unacceptable risk” that the companies posed by selling weapons to a state that uses them “in ways that constitute serious and systematic violations of international humanitarian law”.

[...]

AviChina delivered light aeroplanes in December 2021 to Myanmar and Bharat Electronics delivered a remote-controlled weapons station to Myanmar in July 2021, the fund said.

“Both before and after the coup in 2021, the armed forces have perpetrated extremely serious abuses against the civilian population, with, among other things, combat aircrafts, according to several international institutions,” the fund said of the reason for divesting from AviChina.

[...]

According to the fund, Bharat Electronics’ system was “developed to remotely control weapons from inside an armoured vehicle”.

“It is reported that such vehicles are used in attacks on civilians in Myanmar,” the fund said. “The attacks have been numerous and, in the Council’s view, constitute serious and systematic violations of international law.”

[...]