UN Calls for Sanctions Against Firms Owned by Myanmar Military

(Bloomberg) -- The United Nations fact-finding mission in Myanmar has called for sanctions against a network of companies owned by the country's military, saying they helped carrying out and finance nationwide human rights violations, including against Rohingya Muslims.

The 111-page report released on Monday details what it said was illicit behavior by the military's vast businesses, including two of its largest and most secretive enterprises -- Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation. The report warned foreign firms who work with businesses from the military, known as Tatmadaw, that they could find themselves as complicit in international human rights violations.

Proceeds from the illicit activities raised millions of dollars in one of the world's poorest countries, the report said, and helped fund atrocities that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee across Myanmar's border into Bangladesh following military attacks on Muslim villages in Rakhine state in 2017. As one of the largest ongoing humanitarian crises, the UN has likened the Rohingya plight to a genocide.

“We're now able to establish that the Tatmadaw generate funds from the private sector and explicitly its commander-in-chief, who referred to the fact they are using them to push out the Rohingya from the country,” Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN's fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said by phone Sunday evening.

A Myanmar government spokesman didn't respond to requests to comment.

Run by senior officials including Army Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and several other ranking officials, the two firms hold a substantial stake in the country's lucrative jade trade and according to the report, “used mining areas as staging grounds for abductions, forced labor, sexual violence and murder.” It did so to try to squeeze out additional revenue from an industry that estimates says brings in as much as $31 billion a year -- nearly half the country's GDP.

Forced Deportation

Owned by senior officials including Min Aung Hlaing, the two firms together run more than 120 businesses involved in everything from pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, insurance, tourism and banking, the report said.

The report also lists state-owned arms dealers from seven nations including China, Russia and North Korea that supplied the military with weapons used to carry out extensive human rights violations, including the forced deportation of Rohingya.

Last month, the U.S. State Department sanctioned four Myanmar military officials including Min Aung Hlaing for “gross human rights violations” against Rohingya Muslims, accusing them of being behind ethnic cleansing.

But the UN mission went a step further, calling for the criminal investigation of executives from companies with known links to the military for their role in financing the development projects its says furthered the military's “objective of re-engineering the region in a way that erases evidence of Rohingya belonging to Myanmar.”

According to the report, 45 local companies and organizations additionally donated over $10 million to the military in the weeks following the start of the atrocities in Rakhine State.

Specifically, it cites nearly $3 million provided by military-connected businesses to reinforce a border fence along Bangladesh the UN believes was meant to prevent the Rohingya from returning home. The donations were provided to a government development organization chaired by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

“One could make a conclusion on the degree of complicity of the state counselor,” said Darusman.

At least 15 foreign firms currently have joint ventures with the Tatmadaw, while 44 others have some form of commercial ties with their businesses, the report found.

“These foreign companies risk contributing to, or being linked to, violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” according to a media statement released with the report. “All companies doing business in or buying goods from Myanmar should conduct heightened due diligence to ensure they are not benefiting the Tatmadaw.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip J. Heijmans in Singapore at pheijmans1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz

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