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Justice For Myanmar and Korean civil society call on POSCO to immediately end all other business ties with the Myanmar military junta and its conglomerates
April 16, 2021: Justice For Myanmar and Korean Civil Society in Support of Democracy in Myanmar cautiously welcome POSCO C&C’s decision to end their joint venture with military conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). We demand that POSCO C&C ends all business with MEHL and other military entities, including through land lease payments. We also call on POSCO to take urgent action in relation to their other businesses that benefit the illegal military junta and its conglomerates. POSCO must be transparent about the steps they take to end their business with the Myanmar military.
Yadanar Maung, Justice For Myanmar spokesperson says: “POSCO is one of the most significant business partners of the criminal Myanmar military. While we note their decision to end business with MEHL, we condemn their remaining ties with the military and their illegal junta and remain concerned over POSCO C&C’s presence in a military-controlled industrial zone. POSCO’s gas production and pipeline bankrolls the junta’s crimes against humanity and Lotte Hotel finances the quartermaster general of the army, which buys the weapons the military is using to deliberately kill protesters and indiscriminately bomb ethnic communities. POSCO must end all their complicity in the Myanmar military’s international crimes.”
Kinam Kim from Korean Civil Society in Support of Democracy in Myanmar says: “We cautiously welcome POSCO’s decision to end their business relationship with MEHL. The decision needs to be followed up by specific measures and actions to end their relationship with the military. This is just the first step. POSCO must now take urgent action on all other businesses that benefit the Myanmar military, who illegally carried out a coup and is now massacring civilians. POSCO must suspend payments to the military from the Shwe gas field, the China-Myanmar pipeline and LOTTE Hotel.”
Note to editors
See Justice For Myanmar’s web feature Mapping the Myanmar Military Cartel’s Global Reach through POSCO: www.justiceformyanmar.org/stories/mapping-the-myanmar-military-cartels-global-reach-through-posco
In November 2020, Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Rohingya, Korean Transnational Corporation Watch and Justice For Myanmar filed a complaint against South Korean companies doing business with the Myanmar military, including POSCO, LOTTE and Daesun Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights) and South Korea’s OECD National Contact Point.
Justice For Myanmar, a group of covert activists campaigning for justice and accountability for the people of Myanmar, is calling for an end to military business and for federal democracy and a sustainable peace.
Korean Civil Society in Support of Democracy in Myanmar is a network of 101 civil society organisations advocating in South Korea for democracy and human rights in Myanmar, in solidarity with the civil disobedience movement and other democratic forces in Myanmar.
For more information please contact:
Yadanar Maung, Justice For Myanmar spokesperson
Email: media@justiceformyanmar.org
Kinam Kim, who is part of Korean Civil Society in Support of Democracy in Myanmar
Email: kn.kim@adians.net
