A New Report Says Myanmar's Military Is
Producing Weapons That Are Being Used
Against Its Own People With Components
Sourced From International Companies
Investigators From The Special Advisory
Council For Myanmar Says They Traced The
Military Supply Chain To Global Firms
Based In Asia in The Middle East in The US,
And Europe And They Say This Is Likely
Just The Tip Of The Iceberg
According To The Report, These Home
Produced Arms Are Being Used To Commit
Atrocities Against Those In Myanmar Who
Oppose The Regime Officially More Than 2
600 People Have Been Killed In The
Crackdown Since The 2021 Coup That Saw
With The Return Of The Military, Many Victims
We're, Pro-democracy Protesters Since Then
Parts Of The Country Have Seen Fighting
Between The Military And Anti-crew Rebels
Thank You
Joining Us Is Yang Hill, Former Special
The Repertoire Of The Situation Of Human
Rights In Myanmar And One Of The Authors
Of The Report Thanks For Coming On The
Program A Young He Can, You Start By
Telling Us More About The European
Companies Complicit In This And What
Exactly They Are Providing To The
Military Of Myanmar
Well It Was Really Surprising To
Discover That Many, The European
Countries Are Still Providing Raw
Materials To The DDI, Which Is The
The Directorate of Defense Industry Of Myanmar
See There Is No Universal Arms Embarked
The Security Council And So Different
Countries Have Had Bilateral Arms
Embargo, Arms, Sanctions, But I Think This
Our Raw Material Supply Chain Has Not
Been On The Radar Or People Have Missed
If It's, Been In It's Been The Biggest
Gap And This Is Why We At Sac M Decided
To Do Uh Research On This
We Have To Remember
That Myanmar Never Produced
Arms To Export
They Uh Don't Have Any Foreign Invasion
However And Uh The Defense Industry Of
Course It In In In All Country's Defense
Industries Are Part Of The National
Economy, But In The Case Of Myanmar It's
Run By The Military And All Of What It's
Been Doing With All The Productions It's
Been Able To Evade Many Of The Sanctions
In Myanmar For Decades And The Military
Has Been Making Its Own Small Light Arms
And Munitions With The Assistance Of Foreign
Companies To Provide Them With Raw
Material And The European Some Of The
European Countries Are Still Doing This
Can You Describe To Us The Kind Of
Investigative Work It Took To Arrive At
Your Conclusions And Findings In Your Report
Well We Looked At
Um Budget-related Documents That Were
Leaked From The Myanmar Military Uh DDI,
And We've Done Intensive Open Source
Investigations We've Spoken To Many Uh
People Who Are Involved With The
Military And Recently Uh Defected Or In
The Past Has Been Involved With The
Myanmar Military We've Looked At
Shipment Records From Subscription-based
Import And Export Data We've Also
Interviewed Extensively With
Um Weapon Manufacturing Industries
Officials From Weapon Manufacturing
Industries In Southeast Asia And In My
Mind Particular And This Is How We Came
In A Conclusion, We Couldn't Figure Out
Why Uh With All The Arms Embargoes From
In Different Countries, They Were Still Using
Materials of Light Arms And Ammunition
And Landmines That Were Produced In
Myanmar To Commit Atrocities Against Its
Own People And Since This Happened
Before The Flu And Since The Coup Now
Taiwan Is Quite A Well-liked Democratic
State These Days And It's David And
Goliath Face Off Against China Also
Plays A Role Talk About That
Um, Well, It Was A Little Surprising For
We Too, But It Seems Like Taiwan
Functions As An Important Transit Point
For Our DDI's Purchase Of High Precision
Of The Uh CNC, Computer Numeric Uh
Machinery
Um, Including From European Manufacturers
For Canada, Arms Manufacturing With
Assistance From Crony Companies
Mama Holdings The DDI, Also Regularly
Sends Uh CNC, Machines From Keypad,
Factories In Taiwan Where They Are
Serviced By Technicians Associated With
The European Manufacturers Of The
Machines After Which They Shipped Back
To Myanmar And To The DDI, It Appears As
Though The Absence Of Taiwanese
Sanctions On Myanmar Facilitate These
Types Of Transactions And Shipments To
And From Myanmar And For The Performance
Of Critical Maintenance
And The Report Identifies Eight
Taiwanese Companies Whose CNC, Machines
Are In The Current Are Used Currently At
Capable Weapons Factory
Right So What Is In The Toolbox So To
Speak To Stop Components Made In Germany
From Showing Up In Myanmar's Military
Arsenal And Other Countries' Companies
Being Involved In This Supply Chain
Problem Essentially
Well There Are Two Factors
Um, The Companies Themselves Uh They
Under International Law Are Obliged
By U.n Guidelines On Human Rights Uh And
Business To Do Do Do
Diligence And They Have To Do Uh End
Risk Assessments And The Whole Countries
Also, Have Obligations Under
International Law Provides Their Own
Home Companies With Guidelines Otherwise
The Companies That Are Supplying The Raw
Materials Are Complicit To The
Atrocities That Are Ongoing In Myanmar
Now As Well As The Countries That Have
Not Done Anything To Prevent Its Home
Companies From Selling Materials To
Myanmar That Is Killing Its Own People
Young Healthy Thank You So Much For
Joining Us
For German Manufacturers Were Named In
The Report For Supplying Components That
Could Be Used As A Weapon By Myanmar's
The Military We Reached Out To Them Before
Going To Air And Received Emailed
Statements Back From Three Of Them DMG,
More, Said It Respects Human Rights Along
Its Entire Supply Chain Takes Pains
To Ensure No Misappropriation Of Their
Machines Take Place Fritz Werner And
Siemens Denies Any Current Business
Activity With The Myanmar Military But
The Authors Of The Report Say They
Relied On Leaked Military Documents
Interviews With Former Members Of The
Military Satellite Photos And A Variety
Of Other Sources To Reach Their Findings
Which They Say Are Current
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