Rohingya Groups Urge US, French Sanctions On Myanmar Gas Revenue

Rohingya rights organizations have called on the US and France to impose sanctions on gas revenue in Myanmar, claiming that the military junta is using the money earned from the natural resource to commit "genocide."

"We ... urge President Biden of the United States of America and President Macron of France to urgently introduce sanctions on gas revenue in Burma (Myanmar)," said the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), an umbrella organization of 21 rights groups worldwide, in a statement released late on Thursday.

It said gas extraction projects, involving American firm Chevron and French Total, provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the Myanmar military annually.

It also warned that the money generated through the gas sector was aiding the military junta in Myanmar, where it is perpetrating crimes against humanity that include the killing of children and indiscriminate bombings of villages.

"So far, both President Biden and President Macron have blocked sanctions on the gas industry, protecting the profits of American and French companies ahead of the lives of Burmese people. This urgently needs to change," the statement emphasized.

After the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the US, EU, UK, and Canada imposed a number of sanctions on the military's sources of income, including timber and gems. "But gas production, which is one of the military's biggest revenue sources, has so far gone untouched."

"We Rohingya had to witness the genocide of our people go largely unpunished by the international community," added the statement.

According to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency, more than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed since Aug. 25, 2017, while more than 34,000 have been thrown into fires, over 114,000 have been beaten, and up to 18,000 Rohingya women and girls have been raped.

Nearly 1.2 million persecuted Rohingya Muslims have been living in the crammed makeshift tents in Bangladesh's southern district of Cox's Bazar mostly of whom fled the August 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The statement added that the lack of accountability prompted the Myanmar military to believe they could get away with the military coup. "They are now attacking people all over Burma, killing children, burning villages and torturing with impunity."

The statement underlined the plight of Southeast Asian country's people in the aftermath of the military takeover, stating that 300,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes since then. "It all echoes what the Rohingya have had to suffer at the hands of the military, and we are standing in solidarity with our fellow brothers and sisters across Burma." -