A new report prepared by the Task Force to Monitor Article 33 Progress in Myanmar—bringing together the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), Myanmar Labour Alliance (MLA), Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), and partner organisations—sheds urgent light on the military junta’s continued assault on workers, civilians, and democratic institutions.
Since the coup on 1 February 2021, the military—now operating as the State Security and Peace Commission (SSPC)—has waged a brutal campaign of airstrikes, arrests, torture, and repression, targeting in particular the Myanmar trade union movement. More than 4,000 civilians have been killed and over 20,000 detained, including trade union leaders, while humanitarian needs grow.
This briefing forms part of the collective effort to monitor and advance the implementation of the ILO Governing Body’s Article 33 Resolution. Its findings reveal that, despite global condemnation, the junta remains economically resilient—propped up by international maritime and financial networks that continue to supply the jet fuel essential for its air attacks.
The report documents the continued flow of Jet A-1 fuel from Thilawa Port to key airbases, the transport of air-to-surface rockets, and the dual-use fuels enabling the regime’s military logistics. It also maps the role of regional maritime hubs—particularly Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia—and the involvement of sanctioned military conglomerates and banks that anchor the junta’s financial system.
Crucially, this report reinforces the ILO’s call for coordinated global action:
cutting the junta’s access to jet fuel is a life-saving intervention. Denying port entry to high-risk vessels, strengthening financial restrictions, enforcing end-use checks, and mobilising port-worker unions are concrete steps that can directly reduce the junta’s capacity to commit atrocities.
As attacks on communities and trade unionists continue, shutting down these maritime and financial lifelines is not only a legal obligation under Article 33—it is an urgent act of solidarity with Myanmar’s workers and civilians resisting state violence.