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Protesters calling on the US to impose sanctions on Myanma Oil and Fuel Enterprise in Japan on Might 8. / Blood Cash Marketing campaign
By The Irrawaddy 11 Might 2022
Activists are urging US President Joe Biden to impose sanctions on Myanma Oil and Fuel Enterprise (MOGE), which gives a monetary lifeline to Myanmar’s junta. The European Union imposed sanctions on the agency in February.
Greater than 637 home organizations, together with protest committees, labor unions, ladies’s rights and academic teams and over 220,000 people signed an open letter to Biden, in response to the Blood Cash Marketing campaign (BMC), which lobbies to financially isolate the junta.
The BMC referred to as on Biden to take heed to Myanmar’s individuals and sanction MOGE.
“The US, it’s time to cease defending democracy solely with phrases,” mentioned Ko Ye, a BMC spokesman.
The group reported that the junta seized round US$1.5 billion in fuel income from state financial institution accounts after the 2021 coup to fund genocide and homicide.
“We don’t ask the US to offer weapons. We solely ask the US to cease paying the fascist regime for pure sources,” Ko Ye mentioned.
MOGE has been a lifeline for army governments for many years and an estimated 50 % of international foreign money got here from pure fuel and Myanmar earned round $1.5 billion from oil and fuel within the 2020-21 monetary yr, in response to pre-coup forecasts.
The marketing campaign urged the Biden administration to cease fuel revenues reaching the junta by working with allies in Thailand and South Korea to divert revenue to accounts held till the civilian Nationwide Unity Authorities is acknowledged.
It mentioned fuel firms and banks which traded with the junta ought to face money-laundering prices. It mentioned the junta-controlled Myanma Overseas Commerce Financial institution ought to face sanctions for cash laundering.
Worldwide oil and fuel companies like Complete, Chevron and Woodside left Myanmar after the coup however the junta’s funding minister Aung Naing Oo mentioned solely 10 % of Myanmar’s oil and fuel funding got here from the three companies and their withdrawal didn’t impression the economic system. China, the biggest supply, gives round 27 % of oil and fuel funding.
Human rights organizations are urging Complete to not pay the junta about $250 million it owes Myanmar.
Because the coup in February final yr, the regime has killed greater than 1,800 individuals and it makes use of airstrikes, artillery, arson assaults, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests towards civilians.
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