Calls by Myanmar protestors are growing shrill to demand countries block the supply of aviation fuel to the Myanmar military.
The nub of concern is jet fighter and helicopter fuel enables the Myanmar military to bomb, rocket and strafe civilian and resistance targets in Myanmar to devastating effect.
Aerial attacks have picked up substantially over the last couple of years since the 2021 military coup – and to a large extent, Myanmar civilians have felt the brunt of the deadly onslaughts.
TWO SIDES OF THE COIN
It can be argued that the reasons for the Myanmar junta to rely more on the use of jet fighters and helicopters – as part of their multifaceted “four cuts” strategy - are primarily two-fold.
Firstly, since the Spring Revolution resistance started two years ago, the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) – while poorly armed - have gained significant ground, meaning well over 50 per cent of the country is effectively out of the control of the junta.
Secondly, as a result of numerous military engagements, the Myanmar military, particularly ground troops, have suffered as a result of PDF actions – particularly due to hit-and-run engagements, including the devastating use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), that have led to a significant troop body count. This has prompted a rethink by junta military strategists.
As has happened in many war theatres around the world over the last half century, ground troop losses often lead those in power to step up the use of mechanized armour, particularly fighter jets and helicopter gunships. In typical scenarios in which government forces are pitted against guerrillas, menacing jets and gunships give regimes the edge, and minimize the loss of military personnel. Such a scenario could be seen in the Soviet war against Afghan guerrillas in the 1980s.
Aerial military action, while not necessarily that accurate, brings with it “shock and awe”, prompting the enemy – in this case PDFs and civilians – to cower and run in fear, and leads to a significant increase in deaths.
Over the last 12 months, the Myanmar junta has stepped up aerial bombing in attempts to batter the resistance and its support base into submission. This strategy also takes into account that the PDFs do not have anti-aircraft weapons, despite rumours that such weapons might be supplied.
MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS
The Myanmar junta appears to be pursuing a deliberate strategy of targeting the PDF support base, while seeking to divide powerful ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) - being offered peace deals - from the PDFs.
Air strikes on civilians that have prompted international condemnation are part of a wider campaign that has expanded into the main drive of the junta’s war effort.
Since mid-2022, the air force has ratcheted up the number of daily sorties aimed not only at beating back attacks by PDFs and their ethnic army allies, but also at hitting ERO bases, command centres and supporting economic resources, according to security analyst Anthony Davis, writing for Asia Times.
Three lethal airstrikes against civilians stand out over the last 12 months, all shocking.
They were the air attacks on a school in Sagaing’s Depayin township last September, a concert near the Kachin jade-mining centre of Hpakant in October, and the massacre of about 170 civilians in the village of Pazigyi in Sagaing Region in April this year.
In the weekly tally of airstrikes against a range of targets across the country, in both Bamar-majority areas, and some areas of the ethnic states, the message from the Myanmar junta is clear – civilian casualties are a price the junta is willing to pay in its strategy to hang on to power in Myanmar.
In a recent commentary published by USIP entitled, “Like Ukraine, Myanmar Deserves International Aid”, Lt. Gen. Sumlut Gun Maw, vice chairman of the Kachin Independence Council, Yee Mon, Minister of Defense of the National Unity Government (NUG), and Min Ko Naing, a prominent activist, cite the air strikes as evidence of the “boundless cruelty” of a junta at war with its people.
“A recent example: On the morning of April 10, 2023, a deafening cacophony of explosions woke the secluded mid-country village of Pazigyi into a hellish chaos. Fighter jets and helicopters hovered overhead, unleashing a merciless barrage of bombs and gunfire on a gathering of villagers below. Hundreds of bodies were strewn across the area, leaving the whole nation reeling in shock and pain.
But the atrocities did not end. Another round of aerial gunfire continued the slaughter, targeting rescue workers and destroying evidence.
“This tragedy is far from an isolated incident. In the two and a half years since the coup, the military has killed thousands of civilians, detained tens of thousands — including senior elected officials, such as State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi — demolished thousands of homes in arson attacks and launched hundreds of air strikes against civilian targets. Both the majority Bamar-populated central plain and minority ethnic areas are targets for having resisted the generals ’attempts to retake power against the people’s will,” the trio write.
Deadly aerial attacks represent the sharp end of the Myanmar junta’s increasingly desperate war that according to critics shows how the generals in Naypyitaw have lost all credibility and have seriously failed their people.
RESPONSE
Apart from the Myanmar public outcry against these aerial bombardments that kill and strike fear, a growing number of local and international NGOs, and the United Nations, are calling for countries and companies concerned to deny the junta support where it hurts.
Amnesty International continues to call on the international community to urgently prevent shipments of aviation fuel from reaching the Myanmar military. Their report, published at the end of last year, entitled:
“Deadly Cargo: Exposing the Supply Chain that Fuels War Crimes in Myanmar” provides the most detailed look into aviation fuel since the military seized power in the 2021 coup, from the distant port where the fuel originally departed to the unlawful air strikes that killed civilians – and every step in between.
“These air strikes have devastated families, terrorized civilians, killed and maimed victims,” says Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard. But, as he notes, if the planes can’t fuel up, they can’t fly out and wreak havoc, and therefore Amnesty is calling on suppliers, shipping agents, vessel owners and maritime insurers to withdraw from a supply chain that is benefiting the Myanmar Air Force.
“There can be no justification for participating in the supply of aviation fuel to a military that has a flagrant contempt for human rights and has been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and other grave human rights violations.”
Amnesty International’s research was carried out in collaboration with Justice For Myanmar and with the support of other civil society organizations, including Burma Campaign UK, all of whom have been vocal on the need to switch off fuel supplies to the junta.
These NGOs have not just been researching to compile reports. They’ve used up shoe leather and online action to lobby the companies and governments quietly delivering the fuel.
SUPPLY CHAIN EXPOSED
As Amnesty stresses, businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights wherever they operate. But Amnesty’s evidence demonstrates that the actions of some companies involved in the supply of aviation fuel to Myanmar link them to the Myanmar military’s commission of war crimes.
Since 2015, the main foreign business involved in the handling, storage and distribution of aviation fuel in Myanmar has been Puma Energy, which is largely owned by global commodity trading giant, Trafigura. It has operated in Myanmar through its subsidiary Puma Energy Asia Sun (PEAS) and joint venture National Energy Puma Aviation Services (NEPAS). According to Puma Energy, since February 2021 and until 5 October 2022, it limited its operations to the provision of aviation fuel for civilian purposes. However, this report shows otherwise.
Amnesty’s findings indicated that aviation fuel (Jet A-1) entered Myanmar primarily through a terminal in Thilawa port managed by PEAS. Amnesty International identified eight separate shipments of aviation fuel that were offloaded at the terminal between February 2021 and mid-September 2022 – a post-coup window of time.
The fuel was then stored at the PEAS terminal until transported by tanker truck to NEPAS storage facilities and military air bases across the country. Based on data obtained from December 2021 to August 2022, some NEPAS storage facilities are linked to military air bases, showing that civilian and military use of aviation fuel is inextricably linked.
HUMAN RIGHTS HARM
By facilitating the Myanmar military’s access to aviation fuel, Puma Energy contributed to human rights harm caused by the Myanmar military, Amnesty claims.
Puma Energy itself acknowledged to Amnesty that it had “become aware of reports of the military forcibly demanding fuel at selected NEPAS airport facilities. These reported incidents undermined our confidence in NEPAS’s ability to maintain the controls that were put in place” by Puma Energy.
On 26 September, Amnesty International presented Puma Energy with evidence from this report. Ten days later, the company announced it was leaving the country and selling its business in Myanmar.
DIGNIFIED EXIT?
“We acknowledge Puma Energy’s decision to exit from Myanmar, but the announcement of sales to an undisclosed ‘locally-owned private company ’raises entirely new concerns about the need to disengage responsibly, transparently, and to avoid leaving aviation fuel infrastructure in the hands of the Myanmar military,” said Montse Ferrer, Business and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International.
“Puma Energy must responsibly withdraw and contribute to the remediation of any harm. This should begin with consultations with representatives of the Myanmar communities that have been affected by unlawful air strikes to find appropriate measures of reparation,” Ferrer said.
The lobbying of Puma appeared to pay off.
On the decision to leave Myanmar, Amnesty International’s Human Rights Researcher Montse Ferrer said: “Amnesty International acknowledges Puma Energy’s decision to leave the country, which comes after a long campaign by civil society groups including Burma Campaign UK and Justice For Myanmar who, among others, have placed vital scrutiny on aviation fuel supplies that may end up in the hands of Myanmar’s military.
Needless to say, the Puma victory is just part of the puzzle that represents companies and countries that support Myanmar’s brutal regime, including the key bugbears China and Russia.
The Dragon and the Bear are integrally linked to the Golden Land – a land soiled by military bombing, strafing and arson. For the Myanmar resistance, activists, and critics, targeting military fuel supplies is crucially important. But more concerted efforts will be needed to staunch the flow of aviation fuel - just one factor in the Spring Revolutionaries ’efforts to turn the tables on the junta.
Andrew Landen is the pseudonym for a writer who reports on Asia.
