Myanmar Regime Hit With Fresh Sanctions by European Union
By Hein Htoo Zan 21 February 2023
The European Union (EU) has imposed further sanctions on members of the terrorist Myanmar junta, its arms brokers and jet fuel suppliers.
Activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM) welcomed the new sanctions, and called on the United States (US) and democracies in Asia to follow the example of the EU, UK and Canada in targeting the military’s jet fuel supply chain.
JFM also called on the US, UK and Canada to follow the EU’s lead and swiftly sanction Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, which JFM says is the military regime’s biggest source of foreign revenue.
In a February 20 statement JFM said that democracies in Asia including Japan, South Korea and India must also step up and end business with the junta, and impose targeted sanctions on the regime and its conglomerates.
The EU’s latest round of sanctions comes over two years after the Myanmar military’s coup.
Arms brokers targeted in this round of sanctions include Aung Hlaing Oo, Sit Taing Aung and Kyaw Min Oo, along with the companies Dynasty International, International Gateways Group and Sky Aviator Company Limited.
Both Aung Hlaing Oo and Dynasty International have conducted business with EU companies, and future activities will be prevented through the sanctions.
Aung Hlaing Oo has been a longstanding business partner of the Finnish energy corporation, Wärtsilä, and won two junta power plant tenders in 2022 in a consortium with Dongfeng Electric International Corporation.
Dynasty International brokered the supply and maintenance of G120TP aircraft from the German corporation, Grob Aircraft SE. In response to recent questions in parliament from Die Linke, the German government stated that they are not aware of the sale of Grob G120TP aircraft to the Myanmar Air Force.
“We welcome the latest round of sanctions from the EU, targeting junta members and agencies, along with their arms brokers and jet fuel suppliers, which are complicit in ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Ma Yadanar Maung, JFM’s spokesperson.
“The people of Myanmar have sustained mass resistance to the military’s brutal and illegal coup attempt and its campaign of terror, ensuring that the coup and the junta’s sham so-called ‘elections’ will not succeed,” she added.
Ma Yadanar Maung also said that the EU needs urgently to expand its sanctions to target more individuals and businesses that enable the junta’s access to funds and arms, in coordination with its allies.
JFM’s statement said that the EU has also importantly designated Asia Sun Group, which brokers the supply of jet fuel to the junta and stands complicit in its international crimes. JFM said that this will help disrupt the supply of jet fuel to the regime, which the military needs for its ongoing campaign of indiscriminate airstrikes.
The new EU sanctions come as the Myanmar people continue to resist courageously the junta’s nationwide campaign of terror, so ensuring that the coup is not a success.
The regime’s response to mass resistance has been the continued commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, murdering over 3,000 people, arbitrarily arresting over 19,000 more, displacing 1.1 million people and carrying out indiscriminate attacks across Myanmar, enabled by a continued supply of funds, arms and jet fuel.
“While these latest sanctions are a positive step in cutting the junta’s access to resources, far more needs to be done to coordinate sanctions that systematically target the junta’s sources of revenue, arms and jet fuel,” Ma Yadanar Maung said.
