Ministers urged to bar bid for Chelsea – the Telegraph
The sale of Chelsea has been hit by fresh controversy after Parliament was told to throw out the shortlisted bid from Stephen Pagliuca, the co-chairman of Bain Capital, on the basis the club and Premier League must not be “contaminated” by “despicably corrupt business practice”.
The Telegraph reports that Sir Martin Broughton, who is heading another of the bids, was the target of criticism from Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, regarding his involvement at British American Tobacco and the company’s alleged relationship with the Burmese military.
US, UK, Canada sanctions target Myanmar air force, ‘arms dealers’ – Al Jazeera
The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have imposed coordinated new sanctions on Myanmar in response to the military’s brutal crackdown on opponents to its rule, reports Al Jazeera. The sanctions focus on senior military officials, including the newly-appointed chief of the air force and those linked to the arms trade.
“Stopping Burmese military airstrikes is the most urgent priority, and it is very good to see the British government begin the process of targeting suppliers to the air force,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said as thousands were forced from their homes as a result of almost daily aerial bombardment.
Myanmar reopens to tourists – TTR Weekly
Myanmar will reopen to international tourists on 17 April, the junta government has announced after a two-year shut-down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thailand-based travel news publication TTR Weekly reports that travel firms are not optimistic they will see any bookings. Travellers will be wary of the security risks and are likely to support a boycott of the country. As long as a military junta that usurped power from a democratically appointed government runs the country travellers will go elsewhere.
Burma Campaign UK has just added 28 companies from 12 countries to its “Dirty List”, accused of feathering the nest of the military junta through commercial ventures.
Veteran activist Mya Aye back behind bars – Myanmar Now
Mya Aye turned 56 on the day that Myanmar’s military junta sentenced him to two years in prison, reports Myanmar Now. He is the father of Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, senior advocacy officer at Burma Campaign UK.
“It’s not strange for a politician to face hardships such as this in life. I will stand my ground no matter what sentence they give me,” he said in a message sent to his daughter before receiving the sentence, which was the maximum allowable for the alleged offence.
Even if her father seemed to accept his fate, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon couldn’t help but be saddened by the outcome. “I just wanted him to spend his birthday at home with his family, eating a good home-cooked meal. It breaks my heart that we couldn’t give him that much, at least,” she said.
As a member of Burma Campaign UK, a group that calls for international pressure on the Myanmar regime, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is unable to return to her home country to see her father or the rest of her family.
Businessman denies selling arms to Myanmar junta – the Irrawaddy
Until his and his family’s shady connections with the Myanmar military were exposed by The New York Times late last year, reports the Irrawaddy, U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung was mostly known as the CEO of KT Group, which operates the TNT port terminal in Yangon. The Times’ story unmasked the Kyaw Thaungs as people who have quietly equipped the Myanmar military.
The port terminal is now struggling to be operational. Shortly before the coup, Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping firm, announced that it would not use the terminal. Before that, a British port operator stopped running the port after the operator was put on Burma Campaign UK’s “dirty list” of international companies doing business with the military. U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung admitted he was struggling to pay the leasing fees to the military.
“Dirty List” broadens to include Japanese investors, tech firms, Vietnamese shippers – Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma Campaign UK has published the latest iteration of its ‘Dirty List’, adding 28 new companies said to be linked to the Burmese military and, as such, to human rights violations and the environmental destruction of Burma, reports the Democratic Voice of Burma.
The additions to the list — which now targets 116 entities — are registered across 12 different countries, the majority from Japan and Vietnam.
BCUK director Mark Farmaner says that, despite a May 2021 commitment made by Japan (as part of the G7) to observe an embargo on the sale of arms to the junta, the country continues to do business with the military across other sectors. “So there’s a real inconsistency there at the heart of Japanese policy – that they’ll fund [military companies participating in] arms sales but they won’t fund the arm sales themselves.”
Myanmar ambassador urged to leave London residence – the Telegraph
The British government is reportedly pressuring Myanmar’s former ambassador to leave his official London residence a year after he was ousted by the military regime for criticising the coup, reports the Telegraph.
Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, said that his past behaviour “should not detract from the fact that he is the legitimately appointed ambassador for Myanmar and has a right to stay in the residence and the Embassy.”
Myanmar junta sentences veteran activist on his birthday – the Irrawaddy
A Myanmar junta court sentenced prominent democracy activist Ko Mya Aye to two years’ imprisonment under hate speech charges, reports the Irrawaddy.
Ko Mya Aye, the former 88 Generation student leader and now a Federal Democratic Force leader, was among the first people whose homes were surrounded and detained at gunpoint on February 1, 2021, during the coup. He has been under detention in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison ever since and is not receiving proper medical treatment. U Mya Aye told the court that he was arrested without any reason and condemned the unfair trials. The sentence was handed down on his 56th birthday.
“As family members, we prepared for any news but today I felt anger and sadness,” his daughter Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, senior advocacy officer at Burma Campaign UK, posted on Facebook.
ESG funds scolded for investing in Myanmar arms suppliers – Yahoo!finance
Hundreds of ESG funds run by some of the world’s biggest money managers have a combined $13.4 billion stake in companies that supply weapons and technology to the Myanmar military, reports Yahoo!finance.
A new report by Inclusive Development International and ALTSEAN-Burma found 344 funds that had links with the military as of November. The funds, which say they take into account environmental, social and governance risks, have investments across 33 companies that Burma Campaign UK, Justice for Myanmar and the UN say provided weapons, communications and technologies to the military.
Russia sanctions intensify calls for Myanmar fuel ban – Wall Street Journal
As the US, European Union and others hit Russia with crippling economic sanctions in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reports that they are facing demands to go hard against another regime: Myanmar’s military junta.
In the past year, Washington and Brussels have taken steps to cut off army leaders and their businesses from the global financial system. But the junta has continued its campaign of airstrikes, arrests and custodial torture to counter armed resistance. Now, the coup’s opponents are pushing for a ban on the sale of jet fuel to Myanmar: ‘If the jets can’t fly, they can’t bomb’.