Six French Financial Institutions Still Investing in Myanmar Junta-Linked Firms: Report

By The Irrawaddy 7 July 2023

5 main French banks and a pension fund from the nation have been accused of fueling the Myanmar junta’s widespread and systematic human rights violations by way of their enterprise hyperlinks to the regime.

On Thursday, rights teams Justice for Myanmar (JFM), Data Birmanie and BankTrack revealed in a joint report that 5 industrial banks—Crédit Agricole, La Banque Postale, Groupe BPCE, BNP Paribas and Société Générale—and a publicly owned, state-funded pension fund, Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR), proceed to spend money on 22 firms linked to the navy regime.

The junta is broadly accused of committing struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity, JFM stated.

The report, endorsed by ALTSEAN-Burma, the Worldwide Federation for Human Rights

and Reporters With out Borders, stated the investments made by the industrial banks and the fund up to now quantity to over US$6 billion—75 % of it within the fossil gasoline sector.

They’ve additionally invested in firms that promote arms to the junta and in firms working within the telecommunications sector, which allows the junta’s surveillance actions, the report stated.

Of the six entities, Crédit Agricole—France’s second-largest financial institution and the world’s largest cooperative monetary establishment—accounted for the most important portion of the investments, with $4 billion.

Based on the report, the businesses wherein the six monetary establishments are traders have direct and long-standing relationships with the Myanmar navy—or with firms managed by the navy earlier than the coup—or have direct enterprise relationships with state-owned firms managed by the junta for the reason that coup of 2021.

In Might 2021, round 19 industrial banks together with Crédit Agricole had been referred to as on by BankTrack and JFM to divest from junta-linked firms.

Nevertheless, the financial institution stays an investor in Indian state-owned firm Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), which has been implicated within the sale of navy tools to the junta for the reason that coup try.

JFM stated French investments and the partnership between India and France within the discipline of protection, must be rigorously scrutinized to forestall French establishments from serving to to finance the circulation of arms and know-how to the junta.

“It’s outrageous that these banks have nonetheless not taken enough motion to evaluate and minimize ties with firms linked to the junta, even after their investments had been uncovered two years in the past,” stated Henrieke Butijn, local weather campaigner and researcher for BankTrack.

She added, “By failing to behave on their investments, these 5 French financiers will not be solely in breach of the OECD tips and UNGPs [UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights], they’re additionally betraying the folks of Myanmar.”

JFM spokesperson Yadanar Maung additionally stated it’s unacceptable that the French banks and the pension fund proceed to spend money on firms with recognized ties to the junta, which is committing atrocities towards the folks of Myanmar.

“These banks should act now to make sure they’re under no circumstances supporting the junta. As a everlasting member of the UN Safety Council, we urge France to take a agency stance towards the circulation of arms to the junta, together with from India, and push for a worldwide arms embargo.”

Confronted with every day assaults from Individuals’s Protection Forces (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) throughout the nation, the Myanmar junta is partaking in arbitrary and indiscriminate killings of each rebels and civilians, as nicely burning and looting villages and conducting artillery and air strikes on residential areas throughout the nation.

As of Thursday, 3,750 folks had been killed by the junta and 23,753 others together with elected authorities leaders had been arrested or detained for the reason that navy coup in February 2021, stated the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners, which displays deaths and arrests beneath the regime.