"Global firms help Myanmar's military make weapons, says report", 16 January 2022

Myanmar's military is producing a vast range of weapons to use against its own people thanks to supplies from companies in at least 13 countries, former top UN officials say.

The US, France, India and Japan are among those named, despite Western-led sanctions intended to isolate Myanmar.

The report says the home-produced arms are used to carry out atrocities against those who oppose the military...

The firms named supply Myanmar's military with raw materials, training and machines, the report says, and the weapons produced as a result are not used to defend its borders...

Officially, more than 2,600 people have been killed by the military since the most recent coup. However, the real death toll is thought to be 10 times higher...

Some of the equipment used to make weapons is believed to come from Austria. High-precision machines made by the Austrian supplier GFM Steyr are used in several locations, the Special Advisory Council says, to manufacture gun barrels.

When the machines need maintenance, they're shipped to Taiwan, where GFM Steyr technicians reportedly restore them before they're returned to Myanmar. The report says it's unclear whether the Austrian company's technicians are aware they're working on things that will be used inside Myanmar.

GFM Steyr did not respond to a BBC request for comment on the report's findings.

The authors of the report admit they have only uncovered a fraction of the weapons production network, but a number of countries are thought to be involved:

• Raw materials from China have been traced to weapons production in Myanmar, including copper and iron believed to come from China and Singapore
• Key components such as fuses and electric detonators have been tracked from companies in India and Russia using shipping records and interviews with former military sources
• The machinery in Myanmar's weapons factories is said to come from Germany, Japan, Ukraine and the US. Software to programme the machines is believed to originate from Israel and France
• Singapore appears to function as a transit hub, the report says, with Singaporean companies operating as go-betweens for Myanmar's military buyers and external suppliers.

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