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UN rapporteur calls on Thai banks to stop helping Myanmar junta

Posted on by angelo
UN rapporteur calls on Thai banks to stop helping Myanmar junta

Thai banks have become key players in financing weapons for Myanmar’s military over the past year, according to a report. new report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar.

Thai banks have been implicated in the export of arms and related materials worth $120 million to the neighboring state in the 2023-24 financial year – “supporting the campaign of violence and brutality of the junta against the people of Myanmar,” according to UN rapporteur Tom Andrews.

Andrews said that while international efforts to isolate the Myanmar State Administration Council (SAC), as the junta is now known, were successful on some levels, the military regime was still able to access money and weapons for his war against anti-coup forces.

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Exports of arms and military supplies through Singapore “have fallen dramatically from more than $110 million to just over $10 million” over the past year, Andrews said, while that military supplies from Russia and China have also declined.

But “Thailand has become the main source of SAC military supplies purchased through the international banking system,” he said in the report titled “Business of death: how banks and governments facilitate the military junta in Myanmar“.

In total, Andrews identified 16 banks in seven countries that handled transactions related to military purchases by Myanmar over the past two years, and said another 25 had provided correspondent banking services to Myanmar’s state-owned banks controlled by Myanmar. junta.

“By relying on financial institutions willing to do business with the Burmese state-owned banks under its control, the junta has easy access to the financial services it needs to carry out systematic human rights violations, including attacks air attacks against civilians,” he said.

Financial sanctions

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from an elected government 2021 coupwhat triggered financial sanctions imposed on the military, banks and other associated businesses by Western countries.

More than three years later, a protest movement against the coup turned into a full-blown civil war, with the army accused of launching airstrikes against insurgents and civilians despite having lost control of vast areas of territory.

The report found that the value of weapons, dual-use technologies, manufacturing equipment and other materials imported by the junta amounted to $253 million in the fiscal year through March 2024.

That’s a third less than the previous year, the report said, thanks to Singapore’s efforts to prevent companies based in the city-state from aiding the military regime.

Mr. Andrews said progress has shown that sanctions and other international efforts can impact the junta’s ability to resupply, and therefore reduce the military’s ability to launch attacks such as airstrikes that killed hundreds of civilians in their villages.

“The very means by which they attack these villages depends on their access to weapons and equipment supplied from abroad,” he said.

The Burmese army denies accusations of atrocities against civilians and says it is fighting “terrorists”. Officials downplayed the impact of the sanctions and said they only delayed the military’s plan to return the country to democracy.

Mr Andrews examined purchases made by entities controlled by Myanmar’s Defense Ministry, identifying $630 million in military purchases between 2022 and 2024.

The value of Singapore exports fell from more than $120 million in fiscal 2022 to just over $10 million, the report said.

Thai companies linked to helicopter contracts

However, Thailand has partially filled this gap. Companies registered in Thailand transferred arms and related equipment worth $120 million in fiscal 2023, up from $60 million the previous year, the report said.

“Thai banks have played a crucial role in this change. Siam Commercial Bank, for example, facilitated just over $5 million in transactions linked to Myanmar’s military in the year ending March 2023, but that figure skyrocketed to more than 100 million dollars the following year,” she says.

“In one striking example, in 2023, companies registered in Thailand became SAC’s source for spare parts for its Mi-17 and Mi-35 helicopters that companies registered in Singapore previously supplied,” the report said.

“SAC uses these helicopters to transport soldiers and carry out airstrikes on civilian targets, such as the April 2023 attack on the village of Pazigyi in the Sagaing region that killed around 170 people, including 40 children.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told Reuters in an interview in April that Thailand would not take sides and would address all concerns related to the conflict.

The army said members of the armed resistance were killed during the attack on the village of Pazigyi.

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd newspapers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before traveling across South East Asia in the late 1990s. He was editor-in-chief of The Nation for more than 17 years.