Khaing Zar Aung – President of Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar
The President of the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar and the General Secretary of ITALIA-BIRMANIA.INSIEME presented a joint statement, reinforcing their call for urgent sanctions against the dictatorship.
Aviation serves as the military’s primary weapon and is currently being used to bomb numerous villages and civilians, leading to widespread disruptions and mass casualties. The statement urges sanctions on the aviation fuel supply and state-owned banks to sever foreign revenue streams to the Junta.
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NO TIME LEFT. Myanmar democratic future is now.
Cecilia Brighi – General Secretary ITALIA-BIRMANIA.INSIEME
Khaing Zar Aung – President of IWFM (Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar)
January 2, 2024
Myanmar has been plagued for almost three years now, by a violent military dictatorship, which the entire population is opposing with courage and enormous sacrifices, without great tangible international support, other than the usual UN Resolutions and some US and EU sanctions, that do not affect but the vital ganglia of the junta.
The military, following the example of Putin’s Russia, has intensified the war crimes, through the bombing and shelling of villages, with the clear aim of killing and terrorizing the populations, to try to weaken their morale and to force them to capitulate and not oppose any more the dictatorship.
Such atrocities generated nearly 2.6 million internally displaced people who survive without food, medicine, basic health and education services and employment. A dictatorship, supported to this day, particularly by China, India and Russia.
Last December 5, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, handed over Putin’s name to Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military junta, the Order of Alexander Nevsky. On that occasion, the Russian delegation and the junta representatives discussed once again about military cooperation between the two countries, beyond the existing economic and strategic agreements.
In the indifference of the governments that support Kyiv, Myanmar has become the second most important country for Russia in Southeast Asia. The Russian fuel, which cannot be sold in Europe, arrives in Myanmar, and is transported to China through a pipeline owned by the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the China National Petroleum Corporation, that starts in Rakhine State and reaches the Chinese province of Yunnan. In August 2022 the junta also announced to start importing Russian gasoline and fuel oil, to ease ongoing fuel shortages and frequent power cuts1.
While Russia was the only major power to recognize the military coup in 2021, Myanmar was the only ASEAN country to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The junta signed agreements with Rosatom for the construction of a nuclear reactor, wind energy production plants, the opening of direct flights between the two capitals and other economic agreements.
Until today, however, China has always adopted the two-oven policy. In addition to being the main weapons’ supplier to the Burmese military junta, Beijing has also been funding multiple ethnic resistance armies. China’s great interests are characterized by strong economic and geopolitical projects in the Pagodas’ country. Dozens of key industrial and infrastructure plans, which aim for direct access to the Indian Ocean for a total value of nearly 22 billion dollars, including the extraction and export of rare earths, of which Myanmar is very rich, the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), the Lancang Mekong Cooperation (LMC) as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Moreover, a railway is being built transversally throughout all of Myanmar connecting the planned special economic zone EZ) and the deep port of Kyaukphyu, which it is feared could become a dual- use port for the Chinese navy, connecting the Bay of Bengal with the Chinese province of Yunnan. The budget for both the Kyaukphyu SEZ and the port is $8.6 billion2.
1 https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/russia-moves-crude-to-chinese-refineries-via-myanmar-pipeline/
2 Myanmar Junta ‘SweetensDeal’ For Chinain US$ 8Billion SEZ And Port in Rakhine State. The Irrawaddy Dec. 27. 2023