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54 companies in member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have maintained business links to the Myanmar military junta and companies it controls following the military’s illegal coup attempt on February 1, 2021, according to a Justice For Myanmar report published today.
These businesses, some of which have been exposed for the first time, have enabled the junta’s ongoing campaign of terror against the people by providing revenue through the junta-controlled oil and gas and timber sectors, land lease and tax payments, and the supply of aviation fuel and communications and surveillance technology.
Over four years after ASEAN formulated the Five-Point Consensus peace plan, in which Myanmar junta head Min Aung Hlaing agreed to an immediate cessation of violence, the junta has only ramped up its brutal attacks on civilians with the complicity of companies in ASEAN member states, notably Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and their governments.
Companies named in the report include:
- Thailand's partially state-owned PTTEP, which operates two major offshore gas projects in partnership with the junta, bankrolling war crimes and crimes against humanity through the sale of gas to its parent company, PTT.
- Malaysian oilfield services company ENRA Group provides condensate storage and offloading facilities for the Yetagun gas project, which finances the military junta. In 2023 and 2024, Myanmar was the main source of the company’s revenue.
- Singapore-based Interra Resources has supplied the junta with over three million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million since 2021, fuelling the military's indiscriminate airstrikes and ground operations.
- Vietnam's state-owned Viettel Global Investment partners with sanctioned military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) in the Mytel telecommunications network, providing the junta with both revenue and surveillance capabilities.
- Myanmar subsidiaries of Singapore timber companies Greenply Alkemal, Natural Forest and Valency purchased timber from the junta-controlled Myanma Timber Enterprise and exported over US$10 million in timber products from 2021-2023.
- Malaysia’s MAMEE-Double Decker and Thailand's CP Group have manufacturing facilities in the Pyinmabin industrial zone, controlled by the military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited.
- Singaporean company Krislite Group is the developer of New Strand, a real estate project on land leased from the military conglomerate MEC.
The significant involvement of ASEAN-based businesses and member governments in providing funds and aviation fuel to the military junta has been enabled by the bloc’s failure to press for a ban on aviation fuel and arms exports and action to stop revenue flows to the junta.
As an intergovernmental organisation, ASEAN's claims of taking the lead to resolve the crisis, while hypocritically offering false legitimacy to the military junta and providing it with military training, has worsened the situation in Myanmar and impeded international action.
Justice For Myanmar calls on ASEAN member governments to immediately cut the junta's access to funds, arms, equipment, technology, and aviation fuel. Businesses must cut all payments to the junta and stop the supply of aviation fuel to the junta, which continues to enable brutal airstrikes like the one earlier in May that killed 22 children and two teachers at a school in Sagaing.
ASEAN must move beyond the failed Five-Point Consensus to support a Myanmar people-led solution, as civil society has demanded.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: "ASEAN's failure to address corporate complicity has allowed the junta to intensify its brutal campaign of terror that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions with total impunity.
"While international sanctions have attempted to isolate the junta, companies in the ASEAN region continue to carry out business as usual with military conglomerates and state enterprises illegally under junta control, undermining the scant efforts to block the junta’s access to funds and aviation fuel.
"In the aftermath of the earthquake, the situation on the ground in Myanmar is even more desperate, and the junta’s response has been more carnage through the continued bombing of civilian areas. These brutal acts are supported by ASEAN-based businesses and governments.
"As leaders of ASEAN gather in Malaysia, they must take a clear stand for human rights by ending all forms of support for the Myanmar junta — including a stop to the flow of funds and aviation fuel facilitated by companies operating within their jurisdictions.
"ASEAN must act. It is high time it ends this ongoing complicity with the Myanmar junta and respect the rights and democratic aspirations of the people of Myanmar."
More information:
Read the report online here
