UK imposes sanctions against Myanmar companies supplying junta

By Admin 30 Oct 2024

DMG Newsroom
30 October 2024, Sittwe

Britain on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions against six Myanmar companies in a move targeting the military junta's access to equipment and funds.

In coordination with the European Union and Canada, the financial sanctions target six companies involved either in providing aviation fuel to Myanmar's military or in the supply of restricted goods, including aircraft parts, according to the British government.

The companies hit by the sanctions are Asia Sun Group Company Limited, Swan Energy Company Limited, Myan-Oil Company Limited, Rich Ray Trading Company Limited, and Progress Technology Support Company Limited (a.k.a Royal Shune Lei) and King Royal Technologies Company Limited.

Britain's minister for the Indo-Pacific, Catherine West, said: "The human rights violations taking place across Myanmar, including airstrikes on civilian infrastructure, by the Myanmar military is unacceptable and the impact on innocent civilians is intolerable."

The sanctions will help to constrain the Myanmar military's ability to conduct airstrikes on civilians, which amount to gross human rights violations, according to the British government.

Dozens of civilians were killed by the junta's aerial bombardments in August 2024, which saw the highest number of airstrikes by the Myanmar military on record, it added.

The British government vowed to "continue to work with partners to restrict the sale and transfer of arms and finance to the Myanmar military."

In an interview with DMG, Ko Moe Htet Nay, a political and research advisor for Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, said: "People have expected to receive help and protection from the international community since the beginning of the Spring Revolution. That's why they have called for intervention by the international community under R2P [Responsibility to Protect] and designating no-fly zones."

Amid a series of military defeats over the past year, the Myanmar regime has increasingly targeted civilian populations with indiscriminate air attacks. Healthcare facilities, schools, religious buildings and displacement camps have been among the targets.

One displaced woman in Arakan State said: "Fighting has ceased in our village, but we still dare not return home. There are still air attacks. We have been struggling to make ends meet away from our home. We want to go back home, but can't because of the danger of air attacks."

According to Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, there were 820 regime airstrikes in the four months from May to August, an average of seven attacks every day.