Australia is imposing new sanctions against Myanmar’s junta, but civil groups say more needs to be done to untangle Australia from junta atrocities
Australia has imposed another round of sanctions designed to strangle the flow of money to Myanmar’s junta, three years after the military seized power in an illegal coup.
Key points:
- Anti-junta groups are concerned that Australian companies are propping-up the regime
- A new round of sanctions will target banks that support state-owned enterprises
- Activists allege a dozen Australian and Australian-linked mining companies are operating in Myanmar
But civil society groups are pressing the federal government to go further and target Myanmar’s resource sector to stop Australian-linked mining companies from propping up the dictatorship.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced this morning that the government would impose targeted sanctions on Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank, two of the major banks that support Myanmar’s state-owned enterprises.
It’s also sanctioned Asia Sun Group, Asia Sun Trading Co Ltd, and Cargo Link Petroleum, which the government says have supplied jet fuel to the Myanmar military.
“These sanctions are a response to the regime’s ongoing repression of the people of Myanmar, escalating violence, and the continuing deterioration of the political, humanitarian and security situation,” the foreign minister said.
“They send a clear message of Australia’s deep concern for the regime’s ongoing actions, and its continued disregard for international efforts, particularly those of ASEAN, to seek a resolution to the crisis.”
The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have already imposed sanctions designed to starve the regime of aviation fuel after air strikes by Myanmar’s military killed or wounded hundreds of civilians last year.
Civil society groups have been waging a relentless campaign to get Australia to impose additional sanctions, and have welcomed Senator Wong’s announcement.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung told the ABC that the sanctions would help starve the junta of the funds and jet fuel that it “needs to wage its campaign of terror against the people”.
But activists say Australia is still lagging well behind the US and European nations which have imposed deeper and wider-ranging sanctions.
Last month Justice For Myanmar released a major report that found almost a dozen Australian and Australian-linked mining companies are still operating in the country and investing in its resources sector.
Ms Maung said that the federal government had a moral responsibility to make sure Australian companies are not bankrolling the military junta’s atrocities.
“Australia still has a long way to go simply to catch up with the sanctions already imposed by its allies, and should urgently sanction junta-controlled mining entities given the continued Australian involvement in that sector,” she said.
The CEO of Transparency International Australia, Clancy Moore, said that the new sanctions sent a “strong message from the Australian Government” but also said the government needed to target state-owned mining behemoths.
“Australia’s lack of sanctions on the state-owned enterprises Mining Enterprise 1 and Mining Enterprise 2 that oversee mining sector and collect revenue for the junta means the door is wide open for the ten Australian-linked mining companies to continue to do business with the corrupt and murderous military regime,” he said.
“Given Australia’s support for democracy in the region and for the people of Myanmar, we would expect the Australian Government to follow the lead of the US, EU and Canada in sanctioning these important state-owned enterprises lining the pockets of the corrupt and murderous Myanmar generals.”
