As resistance to the junta in Myanmar expands and intensifies, the response has been to unleash its air force in a bloody and indiscriminate terror campaign from the skies. Last August, the US expanded its Burma (Myanmar) sanctions program to allow for sanctions on any individual or entity involved with the supply of jet fuel to the junta. A year later, the bloodbath continues, due to a lack of enforcement of those sanctions.
To effectively curtail the Myanmar military’s ability to conduct these airstrikes, the US must now enforce jet fuel sanctions all along the supply chain of international enablers, while its likeminded partners need to adopt and enforce similar jet fuel sanctions. Immediate targets should include a Chinese-flagged oil tanker, HUITONG78, that has made repeated jet fuel deliveries to Myanmar, as well as the Vietnamese company Hai Linh Co. Ltd., which operates a large petroleum terminal in Southern Vietnam that has been used to tranship jet fuel and obscure its real destination.
Adding these and other junta enablers to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list would expose every bank, insurance firm, and port that transacts with these parties to legal and reputational risks, as well as potential civil and criminal penalties. Sanctions targeting the linchpin operators in the transnational supply chain would signal US resolve to mobilize even more administrative resources and political capital, further upping the risk for those profiteers. The chilling effect of serious enforcement across the entire logistical and financial bloodstained jet fuel supply would be rapid and devastating to the junta’s ability to continue the aerial bombardment of schools, medical centers, and whole communities.
The players in this deadly pipeline are not a mystery, and enforcement can begin without delay. Amnesty International, in collaboration with Justice For Myanmar, has documented numerous war crimes carried out from the air since the coup that are enabled by a global jet fuel supply chain.
The necessary sanctions regimes are multilateral, far-reaching, and already in the books. Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States, and Australia have all adopted sanctions against key Myanmar individuals and companies identified as junta facilitators. Sanctions by the US and the UK have also listed entities in Singapore that were part of the junta’s jet fuel network.
In August 2023, OFAC issued a determination that “allows sanctions to be imposed on any foreign individual or entity that operates in the jet fuel sector of the Burmese economy,” targeting “activities related to the importation, exportation, reexportation, sale, supply, or transport, directly or indirectly, of jet fuel in or involving Burma.” In short, OFAC can sanction anyone, from anywhere, playing any role in enabling the junta’s access to jet fuel.
Decisive enforcement now on the known enablers and profiteers will dismantle the pipeline of jet fuel to the junta, halt the widening air war that is indiscriminately targeting civilians, enhance the US’s regional credibility, and demonstrate clearly and immediately a strong multinational stand against the forces of corruption, oppression, and mass murder.
Oliver Windridge is Director of Illicit Finance Policy at The Sentry; Yadanar Maung is Spokesperson for Justice For Myanmar