Alwaght- The UN called on the world leaders to impose sanctions on companies linked to the Myanmarese military, saying foreign firms doing business with them could be complicit in international crimes.
A panel of human rights experts identified scores of companies tied to the army, which controls vast swathes of Myanmar’s economy through holding firms and their subsidiaries, and is blamed by the UN for executing a campaign with “genocidal intent” against the Rohingya minority, Reuters reported.
Rakhine has been the scene of violence since 2012. The Myanmarese Buddhist regime's military and Buddhist mobs have killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims. Some 800,000 others have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, living in camps in dire conditions.
The UN investigatory panel condemned the violence in a report last year that called for the economic isolation of the military. Investigators said the purpose of the new report was to help countries cut financial ties with all army-linked companies.
“For the first time, this report comes out with a clear picture of the involvement of specific European and Asian companies, and makes a point that in fact there is this relationship and it’s a violation of UN treaties and UN norms,” panel chairman Marzuki Darusman said in an interview in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Sunday.
The investigators identified at least 59 foreign companies with some form of commercial ties to the Myanmar military, including firms from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong and China. Of those, 15 operate joint ventures with the two military conglomerates or their subsidiaries, the report said.
Calling for the imposition of an arms embargo on the country, the investigators also named 14 companies that have sold weapons and related equipment to security forces in the country since 2016, including state-owned entities in Israel, India, South Korea, and China.
Any foreign business activity involving the army and its conglomerates “posts a high risk of contributing to, or being linked to, violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law”, the report said.
“Corporations and individuals responsible within that corporation can be prosecuted,” Darusman said, adding that the arms they provide allow the military to “continue their oppression to the Myanmar people”.
Myanmar has previously rejected the UN’s categorization of the violence in Rakhine as “one-sided”. It says that military action that followed militant attacks on security forces in August 2017 was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation.
