Burma: Junta has imported a billion weapons since 2021

The Burmese junta has imported one billion dollars worth of weapons (about 900 million euros) since the 2021 coup, which it has used “to commit atrocities”. That is what the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Burma denounces in a report released on Wednesday.

Since the 2021 coup, “the military has killed at least 3,500 civilians” and imprisoned more than 20,000 political prisoners, according to Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma.

Between February 1, 2021, the day of the coup, and December 2022, the junta imported at least $1 billion worth of “weapons, dual-use technologies and materials used to make weapons”, mainly from Russia, China, Singapore. and Indian suppliers. “Units based in Russia and China are needed by the Burmese army to obtain weapons and spare parts,” writes Tom Andrews.

Used to “commit atrocities”

“These weapons and the materials necessary for their production continue to be sent to the Burmese army without interruption, despite irrefutable evidence of its responsibility for atrocious crimes,” the UN expert condemns. He refers to a “brutal attack” on an opposition-controlled village in which 170 people, including children, were killed. He sees this as “another example of how the Burmese junta is using foreign-supplied weapons (…) to commit atrocities.”

In the report “The Billion Dollar Market of Death: International Weapons Networks that Contribute to Human Rights Violations in Burma”, Tom Andrews calls for a total ban on the sale or transfer of weapons to the Burmese army.

It also calls on UN member states to apply sanctions against arms dealers and foreign exchange sources. “By extending and adjusting sanctions and closing loopholes, governments can undermine junta-linked arms dealers,” the speaker argues.

Commissioner of the United Nations Human Rights Council, he regrets that “Member States (No) failed to properly target the main sources of foreign exchange that the junta relies on to buy weapons, including the Myanmar oil and gas enterprise.”