BANGKOK (AP) – The escalation of violence in Myanmar, as authorities crack down on protests against the February 1 coup, is increasing pressure for more sanctions against the junta, as countries struggle to find the best way to influence military leaders accustomed to global condemnation.
The challenge is doubly hampered by fear of harming ordinary citizens who were already suffering from an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, but are facing risks of imprisonment and injuries to express outrage at the military takeover. Still, activists and experts say there are ways to increase pressure on the regime, especially by cutting funding sources and access to repression tools.
The UN special envoy on Friday urged the Security Council to act to suppress the violence of the military junta that this week killed about 50 protesters and wounded many others. More shootings were reported over the weekend, and a coalition of unions called for a strike on Monday.
“There is an urgency for collective action,” said Christine Schraner Burgener at the meeting. “How much more can we allow the Myanmar military to get away with it?”
Coordinated UN action is difficult, however, since the permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it. Myanmar’s neighbors, its biggest trading partners and sources of investment, are also reluctant to resort to sanctions.
Some fragmented actions have already been taken. The United States, Britain and Canada have tightened several restrictions on the Myanmar army, their families and other important leaders of the junta. The United States blocked an attempt by the military to access more than $ 1 billion in funds from the central bank of Myanmar held in the United States, the State Department confirmed on Friday.
But most of the military’s economic interests remain “largely unchallenged,” said Thomas Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, in a report released last week. Some governments have suspended aid and the World Bank said it suspended funding and was reviewing its programs.
It is not clear whether the sanctions imposed so far, although symbolically important, will have much influence. Schraner Burgener told UN correspondents that the army ignored a warning of possible “strong and huge measures” against the coup with the response: “‘We are used to sanctions and have survived those sanctions in the past'”.
Andrews and other human rights experts and activists are calling for a ban on negotiations with the many military companies in Myanmar and an embargo on arms and technology, products and services that can be used by authorities for surveillance and violence.
The activist group Justice for Myanmar has released a list of dozens of foreign companies that he said have provided such potential tools of repression to the government, which is now entirely under military control.
He cited budget documents for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Transport and Communications that show forensic data purchases, tracking, password recovery, drones and other equipment from the US, Israel, the EU, Japan and other countries. These technologies can have benign or even beneficial uses, such as combating human trafficking. But they are also being used to track protesters, both online and offline.
Restricting deals with military-dominated conglomerates, including Myanmar Economic Corp., Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise can also be more forceful, with minimal impact on small private companies and individuals.
One idea that is gaining support is to prevent the junta from gaining access to vital oil and gas revenues paid and held in banks outside the country, said Chris Sidoti, a former member of the UN Independent International Mission to Find Facts in Myanmar, at a news conference on Thursday.
Oil and gas are Myanmar’s biggest exports and a crucial source of foreign exchange needed to pay for imports. The $ 1.4 billion oil, gas and mining industries account for more than a third of exports and a large share of tax revenue.
“The money supply has to be cut. 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 created international group called the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar.
Unfortunately, these measures can take effort and time, and “there is no time for the people of Myanmar at the time when these atrocities are being committed,” he said.
Myanmar’s economy fell ill in isolation after a 1962 coup. Many of the sanctions imposed by Western governments in the following decades were lifted after the country began its difficult transition to democracy in 2011. Some of these restrictions were restored after the army’s brutal operations in 2017 against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the state of Rakhine, in northwest Myanmar.
Australia said on Monday that it had suspended defense cooperation with Myanmar and was redirecting humanitarian aid because of the coup and the arrest of an Australian citizen. Sean Turnell, aide to leader Aung San Suu Kyi, held 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, likewise, said it is considering what to do.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, convened a virtual meeting on March 2 to discuss Myanmar. Subsequently, its president issued a statement calling for an end to the violence and negotiations to try to reach a peaceful settlement.
But ASEAN admitted Myanmar as a member in 1997, long before the military, known as Tatmadaw, initiated reforms that helped elect a quasi-civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. broken. Traditionally, they are committed to consensus and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Although they have no appetite for sanctions, some ASEAN governments have strongly condemned the coup and the ensuing arrests and murders.
Marzuki Darusman, an Indonesian lawyer and former president of the fact-finding mission that Sidoti joined, said he believed the brutal and spiraling violence against the protesters had shaken ASEAN’s position that the crisis is purely an internal matter.
“ASEAN considers it imperative to play a role in resolving the crisis in Myanmar,” said Darusman.
Thailand, with a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) border with Myanmar and more than 2 million migrant workers from Myanmar, no longer wants to flee to its territory, especially at a time when it is still fighting the pandemic.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, senior researcher at the Institute of Security and International Studies at the University of Chulalongkorn, also believes that ASEAN wants to see the return of a civilian government in Myanmar and it would be better to take a “reward and punishment” approach.
But the biggest hope, he said, is with the protesters.
On Saturday, some protesters expressed their disdain for serving Myanmar Beer, a local brand made by a military-related company whose Japanese partner Kirin Holdings is withdrawing at the feet of the people – considered a serious insult in some parts of Asia.
“The people of Myanmar are very brave. This is the number one pressure on the country, ”said Chongkittavorn at a seminar held by the East-West Center in Hawaii. “It is very clear that the board also knows what it needs to do to move forward, otherwise the sanctions will be much more severe.”