Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Rights groups have called on
Singapore-based oil company Puma Energy to commit to “responsible
disengagement” after it announced its exit from Myanmar on 6 October 2022.
Puma Energy said in a statement
that it had decided to sell its stake in the joint venture Puma Energy Asia Sun
(PEAS) and its minority share in the National Energy Puma Aviation Services
(NEPAS) to a locally owned private company. NEPAS is operated in partnership
with the junta-controlled Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise.
Through these ventures, Puma
Energy has been Myanmar’s main supplier of aviation fuel since it commenced
operations in 2015 and launched a multimillion dollar petroleum product terminal
at Thilawa Port in Yangon two years later.
Montse Ferrer, Amnesty
International’s Business and Human Rights Researcher, said that the company’s
decision to withdraw from Myanmar follows a long campaign by civil society and
rights groups to ban jet fuel from reaching the Junta. The fuel supply is
critical to the military’s continued perpetration of airstrikes widely used
against civilian populations nationwide, and responsible for displacing tens of
thousands of people.
Ferrer urged Puma Energy to
ensure that the military is prevented from accessing its aviation fuel
infrastructure once the company has withdrawn from the country. “Any
valuable assets Puma Energy leaves behind should not fall into the hands of the
military or its crony businesses,” he said in a statement.
Since the February 2021 coup,
the Myanmar Junta military has relied heavily on air power to attack armed
forces opposed to its rule, killing many civilians and members of the
resistance groups.
Ferrer encouraged Puma Energy
to identify ways it could “remedy any harm” it may have caused while operating
in Myanmar.
Another rights group, Justice
For Myanmar, stressed that Puma Energy had not announced the name of the local
company to whom it is selling its shares in PEAS and NEPAS and asked that it urgently
disclose further details on the matter.
Justice for Myanmar called on
the company to engage with civil society groups and the publicly mandated
National Unity Government regarding the exit process. The group also urged
foreign governments to take immediate action to stop the Junta’s
“indiscriminate air strikes” by imposing a ban on jet fuel to Myanmar.
Puma Energy is 49 percent-owned
by Geneva-based global commodities trader Trafigura. Shortly after the February
2021 coup, Puma Energy said it was suspending its activities in Myanmar. It
subsequently resumed operations reportedly for civilian purposes, according to
Amnesty International’s statement, which cited information provided by the
company.
News (2)
Myanmar's main supplier of aviation fuel withdraws from country
Puma Energy, the midstream and retail arm of Switzerland’s Trafigura and the main supplier of aviation fuel in Myanmar, announced on Wednesday that it has sold its operations in the country to a locally owned company, becoming the latest multinational to withdraw from military-ruled Myanmar.
The company has signed an agreement to sell its stake in Puma Energy Asia Sun (PEAS) and its minority share in National Energy Puma Aviation Services (NEPAS) to a locally owned private company, the statement said, without naming the buyer.
NEPAS is a joint venture between Puma Energy and the state-owned Myanmar Petrochemical Enterprise under the junta’s Ministry of Energy, and engages in import and distribution of aviation fuel.
Puma initially suspended its operations in Myanmar following the military coup in February 2021 but later resumed distribution for civilian purposes.
In August, Myanmar Junta reconstituted a state-level coordination committee on aviation fuel with the stated purpose of importing, storing and distributing aviation fuel in line with international norms.
The 15-member committee consists of directors-general from the Energy, Transport and Communications, Planning and Finances, the assistant quarter-master general, and chiefs of the state flag carrier Myanmar National Airlines and private airlines including Air Thanlwin, Myanmar Airways International and Golden Myanmar Airlines.
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At least 15 junta forces including a pro-junta militia leader were reportedly killed during attacks by People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) targeting regime forces in the last two days.
Myanmar has seen clashes and urban attacks involving PDFs and EAOs in Yangon, Sagaing, Bago, Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi regions and Karen and Rakhine states.
News (4)
Ward administration office bombed in Yangon
The Yangon Underground Association (YUA) claimed that member organization Generation Z Defense Force (GZDF) managed to bomb the junta-run Kyaungkone Ward administration office in Shwepyithar Township, Yangon on Wednesday afternoon.
The group used two remote-controlled bombs to attack the office. In the attack, an office staffer and some civilians who were visiting the office to register on guest lists were injured.
The group apologized for injuring civilians and urged people to avoid regime forces, their allies and junta-run offices and departments due to potential attacks.
News (5)
Junta official’s store bombed in Yangon
Yangon-based resistance group the South Dagon Guerrilla Force (SDGF) claimed to have bombed the liquor store of junta-appointed ward administration member U Aung Kyaw Saw in the Yusana Garden Housing complex in South Dagon Township, Yangon on Wednesday night.
The group said the attack was intended as a warning to the owner to stop contributing to the junta and selling the military-linked product Myanmar Beer. A vehicle was also damaged in the attack.
News (6)
10 Junta soldiers killed in upper Sagaing
At least 10 junta forces including an army officer were reportedly killed in Kyunhla Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday when the township PDF group and PDF Battalion 1 of Kantbalu District attacked a military detachment of 40 troops traveling to a village near Tha Phan Seik dam, local media outlet Infinity Group reported.
Many troops were injured in the clash. There were no PDF casualties, Infinity said.
News (7)
Junta-run immigration department bombed in Sagaing
Two junta soldiers were seriously injured in the town of Sagaing, Sagaing Region on Tuesday when the People’s Dictatorship Revolutionary Force-PDRF bombed the immigration office, the group said on Wednesday. Some office staff were also injured.
The group urged civilians to avoid regime forces and junta-run departments due to potential attacks.
News (8)
Four Junta forces killed, injured in Bago
A junta police officer was killed and three others including a Pyu Saw Htee pro-regime militia member were injured during a firefight with the Bago Region PDF group in Paukkhaung Township, Bago Region on Wednesday, according to the resistance group.
A shootout broke out between two villages when the PDF fighters ambushed regime forces escorting a group of junta-appointed administrators returning from a meeting.
News (9)
Pro-junta militia leader killed in Ayeyarwady
Ayeyarwady Dolphin PDF group claimed to have killed U Khin Maung Kyi, the leader of a pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia, in Mawlamyaingkyun Township, Ayeyarwady Region on Wednesday evening.
The assassination was part of Operation Nann Htike Aung, the group said, adding that it will continue to target junta informants, administrators and businesses contributing to the military regime. People are urged to avoid them, it said.
News (10)
Pro-junta militia member arrested in Tanintharyi
Pyu Saw Htee pro-regime militia member Ko Naing, 35, was arrested and his M-16 rifle and ammunition seized by the PDF group Dragon Soldiers of Tanintharyi on Tuesday evening while he was going out to bathe near Nyaung Pin Kwin Village in Tanintharyi Township, Tanintharyi Region, the PDF group said on Wednesday.
News (11)
KNLA, resistance snipers kill three junta soldiers in Karen
Three junta soldiers were killed in Myawaddy Township, Karen State on Wednesday when resistance snipers of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied resistance groups ambushed regime forces of Light Infantry Battalion 104 attempting to occupy an area near Taung Ni Village, said KNLA’s cobra column.
Clashes have been reported nearly every day for weeks, as Junta forces have been trying to conduct raids in the area.
On Wednesday afternoon, a fierce clash broke out in the township when KNLA and Cobra Column troops attacked regime forces of three military battalions attempting to occupy the Lukhoe area with 120-mm artillery support from two junta outposts nearby.
Resistance forces also responded to the junta raid with drone strikes. In the clash, at least three soldiers were injured, but no casualties were reported on the resistance side.
News (12)
Clash breaks out in Rakhine
A clash erupted between junta forces and the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) near Thayatpyin Village in Buthidaung Township on Wednesday morning, according to local media.
Details of casualties were not known for either side.
The same morning, villages near Manyin Mountain were attacked by a junta jet fighter and military forces stationed on the mountaintop using heavy explosives, despite the fact that no clash was occurring with AA troops.
On Wednesday night, junta forces randomly fired artillery shells at villages in Minbya and Buthidaung townships without provocation. Due to the junta shelling, a 40-year-old female internally displaced person from Pharpyo Village was injured while sheltering in Kyantike Village in Minbya.
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Myanmar Junta's nuclear ambition timeline exposed
The junta’s recent confirmation that it will build a small-scale nuclear power plant in the next few years caps Myanmar’s long pursuit of nuclear technology dating back to early 2000.
The Southeast Asian country’s two-decade-long journey to nuclear capability was made possible by Russia after a series of engagements that accelerated under the current junta and its military predecessor.
Though the current regime insists nuclear energy would be used for peaceful purposes in Myanmar, which has been hit by chronic electricity shortages, many believe this is the first step in a plan to utilize nuclear energy for military purposes including production of nuclear weapons.
The timeline on Myanmar’s long road to nuclear technology:
January 2002
The Myanmar military regime confirms plans to build a nuclear research reactor “for peaceful purposes.”
May 2002
Russia’s Atomic Energy Ministry, Minatom, agrees to help Myanmar build a nuclear studies center comprising a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor and two laboratories, in Magwe Division, central Myanmar. The agreement includes the construction of facilities for disposing of nuclear waste and Russian training for Myanmar technicians.
July 2002
Russia and Myanmar sign an agreement in Moscow on construction of the proposed nuclear research center in Myanmar.
9 April 2004
Keith Luse, an aide to US Senator Richard Lugar, asks whether North Korea is providing nuclear technology to Burma, during a Washington seminar organized by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.
13 February 2004
The military regime declares that it has “no desire” to develop nuclear weapons, but “has the right to develop nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes.”
14 September 2004
About 400 young military officers from Myanmar leave for Russia amid reports that some of them will study nuclear engineering.
3 August 2006
Myanmar’s deputy ambassador to the UN Nyunt Swe tells the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that Burma is opposed to nuclear weapons.
15 May 2007
Russia’s federal atomic energy agency Rosatom announces it will help Myanmar build the proposed nuclear facility. The agency says the 10-megawatt nuclear reactor, fueled by less than 20 percent uranium-235, will contribute to Myanmar’s “research in nuclear physics, biotechnology, material science as well as…produce a large variety of medicines.” The first round of talks on project details begin.
16 May 2007
The US condemns the project, while Thailand says it has no worries because the facility will be closely supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
November 2008
A 17-member high-level Myanmar military delegation led by then junta No 3 Thura Shwe Mann makes a secret seven-day visit to Pyongyang via Beijing, during which the two sides sign agreements to deepen military cooperation.
Shwe Mann and his delegation also visit Myohyang in North Korea, where secret tunnels have been built into the mountains to store and shield jet aircraft, missiles, tanks, missiles, and nuclear and chemical weapons. The visit arouses concerns about the Myanmar military’s nuclear ambitions.
In 2012, while serving as Speaker of the Lower House under U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, Shwe Mann claims the delegation to North Korea observed the air defense system and signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation between two armies, while nuclear weapons were not on the agenda.
2010
Major Sai Thein Win, an engineer in the Myanmar military’s Science and Technology Workshop (known locally as the “nuclear unit”) with a doctorate in atomic energy from Russia, publicly reveals information, including photos, showing that the military regime is studying the possession of nuclear weapons with technological help from North Korea.
July 2013
Lt-Gen Thein Htay, who heads the Directorate of Defense Industries is placed on a US Treasury sanctions list for illicit trade in North Korean arms to Myanmar. He was part of Shwe Mann’s delegation to North Korea in 2008. Today, he serves as a weapon production advisor for the current regime.
2016
Myanmar signs the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty under the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi hands over the ratification instrument to United Nations Under-Secretary-General Miguel de Serpa Soares.
2018
Myanmar’s bicameral parliament approves President U Win Myint’s proposal for Myanmar to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin signs the treaty during the UN General Assembly in September.
September 2022
The Myanmar Junta and Russia’s state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom sign a roadmap for further atomic energy cooperation, including possible implementation of a modular reactor project in Myanmar.
The agreement is signed on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF-2022) in Vladivostok, Russia, which is attended by regime chief Min Aung Hlaing.
20 September 2022
Junta spokesman Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun briefs press, confirming the regime’s plan to implement a small nuclear power plant project in the next few years.
He does not specify the project’s location but says the Atomic Energy Department of the Junta’s Ministry of Science and Technology will establish a “nuclear information technology center” in Yangon, which will gauge and influence public opinion on nuclear energy.
Refs: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-juntas-nuclear-ambition-timeline.html, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmars-main-supplier-of-aviation-fuel-withdraws-from-country.html, https://www.myanmar-now.org/en/news/activists-call-on-international-oil-company-to-responsibly-disengage-from-myanmar, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-resistance-ethnic-forces-kill-at-least-15-junta-personnel-in-two-days.html
News (14) to (16) / Reporter : Luo Tingting / Editor : Wen Hui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/10/06/a103545023.html
News (14)
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