BANGKOK (AP) – Increase in violence in Myanmar as authorities suppress protests against the February 1 coup increase pressure for more sanctions against the junta, even as countries struggle to move military leaders to global condemnation .
The challenge is doubly compounded by the fear of harming ordinary citizens who have already suffered from an economic downturn exacerbated by the pandemic, but who face the risks of arrest and injury as a result of the outrage of the military takeover. Yet activists and experts say there are ways to ease the pressure on the regime, especially by shutting down resources and shutting down access to instruments of repression.
The UN special envoy on Friday called on the Security Council to crack down on junta violence, killing at least 50 people and wounding many others. Over the weekend, more shootings were reported, and a coalition of unions called for a strike for Monday.
“There is an urgency for collective action,” Christine Schraner Burgener told the meeting. “How much more can we allow the army to get away in Myanmar?”
However, coordinated UN action is difficult, as permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, will almost certainly veto it. Myanmar’s neighbors, its largest trading partners and investment sources, are also reluctant to impose sanctions.
Piece-by-step actions have already been taken. The US, Britain and Canada have tightened various restrictions on the Myanmar army, their family members and other top leaders of the junta. The US has an effort by the military to raise more than $ 1 billion in the central bank funds of Myanmar held in the US, the foreign ministry confirmed on Friday.
But most of the military’s economic interests remain ‘largely undisputed’, said Thomas Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, in a report released last week. Some governments have stopped the aid and the World Bank has said it is stopping funding and reviewing its programs.
It is unclear whether the sanctions imposed so far, although symbolically important, will have much impact. Schraner Burgener told UN correspondents that the military had shrugged off a warning of possible ‘major strong action’ against the coup, saying “we are used to sanctions and we have survived the sanctions in the past.”
Andrews and other experts and human rights activists call for a ban on trade in the many Myanmar enterprises linked to the military, and a ban on arms and technology, products and services that could be used by the authorities for surveillance and violence.
The Justice for Myanmar activist group has released a list of dozens of foreign companies that they say have provided such potential instruments of repression to the government, which is now completely under military control.
It cited budget documents for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Transportation and Communications showing purchases of forensic data, tracking, password recovery, drones and other equipment from the U.S., Israel, EU, Japan and other countries. Such technologies can have beneficial or even beneficial uses, such as fighting human trafficking. But they are also used to track down protesters, both online and offline.
Restricting transactions with military-dominated conglomerates, including Myanmar Economic Corp, Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, may also have more pressure, with minimal impact on small, private businesses and individuals.
One idea to get support is to prevent the junta from gaining access to key oil and gas revenues that are deposited and held in banks outside the country, said Chris Sidoti, a former member of the UN Independent International Facts Mission. about Myanmar, said at a news conference on Thursday.
Oil and gas are Myanmar’s largest exports and a major source of foreign exchange needed to pay for imports. The country’s $ 1.4 billion oil and gas and mining industries account for more than a third of exports and a large portion of tax revenue.
‘The money supply must be cut off. This is the most urgent priority and the most direct step that can be taken, ”said Sidoti, one of the founding members of a newly formed international group called the Myanmar Special Advisory Council.
Unfortunately, such measures can require dedication and time, and ‘time is not on the side of the people of Myanmar at a time when these atrocities are being committed,’ he said.
Myanmar’s economy deteriorated in isolation following a coup in 1962. Many of the sanctions imposed by Western governments in the following decades were lifted after the country began a difficult transition to democracy in 2011. Some of these restrictions were restored after the 2017 brutal operations of the army against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Australia said on Monday that defense co-operation with Myanmar was suspended and diverted humanitarian aid due to the coup and the detention of an Australian citizen. Sean Turnell, an adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi leader detained by the junta, was detained a few days after the coup.
The European Union has said it is reviewing its policies and is ready to take restrictive measures against those directly responsible for the coup. Japan also said it was considering what to do.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, convened a virtual meeting on March 2 to discuss Myanmar. Its chairman later issued a statement calling for an end to violence and for negotiations to reach a peaceful settlement.
But ASEAN admitted Myanmar as a member in 1997, long before the military, known as the Tatmadaw, began reforms that helped elect a quasi-civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Most ASEAN governments have authoritarian leaders or one-party regimes. According to tradition, they are committed to consensus and not interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Although there is no appetite for sanctions, some ASEAN governments have strongly condemned the coup and subsequent arrests and killings.
Marzuki Darusman, an Indonesian lawyer and former chairman of the fact-finding mission to which Sidoti joined, said he believed the violent, brutal violence against protesters shook ASEAN’s attitude that the crisis was merely an internal matter. .
“ASEAN considers it essential that it play a role in resolving the crisis in Myanmar,” Darusman said.
Thailand, with a 2,400-kilometer border with Myanmar and more than 2 million migrant workers in Myanmar, does not want more to flee to its territory, especially not at a time when the fight against the pandemic is over.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute for Security and International Studies, also believes that ASEAN wants to return to a civilian government in Myanmar and that it is best to take a root-and-stick approach .
But the greatest hope is with the protesters.
On Saturday, some protesters demonstrated their contempt by throwing Myanmar Beer, a local brand run by a military-affiliated company, from which Japanese partner Kirin Holdings withdrew, on people’s feet – which in some parts of Asia is seen as a serious insult word.
“The Myanmar people are very brave. This is the number 1 pressure on the country, ”Chongkittavorn said during a seminar held by the East-West Center in Hawaii. “It is very clear that the junta also knows what they have to do to continue, otherwise the sanctions will be much worse.”