BBC News:
Myanmar’s military is producing a vast range of weapons to use against its own people thanks to supplies from companies in at least 13 countries, former top UN officials say.
The US, France, India and Japan are among those named, despite Western-led sanctions intended to isolate Myanmar.
The report says the home-produced arms are used to carry out atrocities against those who oppose the military.
Myanmar has been engulfed in violence since a February 2021 military coup.
Opponents of the coup, which ousted the elected government, have joined ethnic rebel groups in resisting military rule.
The Special Advisory Council on Myanmar’s report notes that several UN member states continue to sell weapons to the military.
“An equally important factor, however, is the fact that Myanmar’s armed forces can produce, in-country, a variety of weapons that are being used to target civilians,” it says.
The firms named supply Myanmar’s military with raw materials, training and machines, the report says, and the weapons produced as a result are not used to defend its borders.
“Myanmar has never been attacked by a foreign country,” explains Yanghee Lee, the UN’s former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and one of the report’s authors.
“And Myanmar does not export any arms. Since 1950, it’s made its own arms to use against its own people.”
