🔻 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: Open Letter to the Biden Administration from 625 Myanmar & International Civil Society Organizations and over 220,000 people of Myanmar
The Honourable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
May 4th, 2022
625 Myanmar & International Civil Society Organizations and over 220, 000 people call on the US to sanction Myanmar’s oil and gas revenues and stop the bankrolling of the genocidal military junta
On May 12-13, President Biden and ASEAN leaders will meet in Washington, DC and discuss the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. One year after the Myanmar military agreed to ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus, it has continued waging violence against the people of Myanmar, brutal crackdown on the people’s movement in defense of democracy, and has consistently blocked humanitarian assistance that is urgently needed by millions of people across the country while attacking humanitarian and medical workers. ASEAN itself has made no progress on implementing its Five Point Consensus, which, though well intentioned when first made, has degraded into mere talking points with no underlying substance or legitimacy.
The Biden Administration must move forward without relying on ASEAN to take the lead. Stopping the humanitarian crisis requires ensuring that the military does not have the resources necessary to perpetuate or scale up its attacks on the people of Myanmar.
As a priority next step, we call on the Biden Administration to listen to the voices of over 220,000 people and sanction the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). Since taking control of MOGE in February 2021, the military has seized an estimated USD 1.5 billion in gas revenues. The military’s continued access to these revenues enables its brutality and disincentivizes it from ending the coup.
The Myanmar people have called for sanctions on MOGE since the beginning of the coup. The United States has clearly stated that it aims to cut off the military’s access to revenue streams in the President’s Executive Order 14014, in announcements of sanctions on the military’s State Administrative Council and various state owned enterprises, and in the Treasury Department’s January 2022 Business Advisory, among others. Sanctioning MOGE would be consistent with U.S. policy.
Neither the United States, ASEAN governments, nor the United Nations has recognized the military junta as the legitimate government of Myanmar. We applaud the ongoing diplomatic efforts to deny the junta the international recognition that it desires. However, we call on the United States to use the full force of its economic leverage to ensure that businesses cooperate with these diplomatic efforts and stop bankrolling the junta.
Throughout the coup, multinational oil and gas companies have aided and abetted the military junta in misappropriating revenues from offshore gas projects that are owed to the legitimate government of Myanmar and paid through MOGE. The military junta is not the recognized government of Myanmar and should not be entitled to access the government’s revenues or bank accounts. Just because it is convenient for gas companies to pay the military junta does not make it right.
The Biden Administration must act now:
1. Use sanctions to stop gas revenues from reaching the junta and work with allies in Thailand and South Korea ensure that these revenues are diverted into escrow accounts to be held for a legitimate, recognized government.
2. Enforce the Treasury Department’s January 2022 business advisory on Myanmar with respect to MOGE, communicating to gas companies and banks that gas revenue payments to the military will be considered money laundering, and that those failing to comply will face consequences.
3. Sanction the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank, a state-owned enterprise that for decades has laundered gas revenues and whose government accounts are once again in military hands.
We thank you for your attention and ask that you take these steps in support of democracy, justice and human rights.
Sincerely,
625 Civil Society Organizations, Unions, and Strike Committees (local and international)
in solidarity with the people of Myanmar &
Myanmar diaspora communities around the world
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗿.𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e4NqyMKxOscufsyRCLk3x3AJcvPGYKnp/view?usp=sharing
𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝗿𝗶𝐚𝗹 𝐄𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yEEJQA6SkL1mz8tzbd6YB0mKlY6H6Dve/view?usp=sharing
