Investigation
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Junta fills coffers with private bank magnates’ bond purchases
Private domestic banks, whose assets consist largely of money deposited by ordinary Myanmar citizens, are effectively using the public’s money to fund the military council’s war effort
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Myanmar junta’s steel industry aided by secretive Italian firm Danieli
Existing EU sanctions fail to deter Myanmar’s military regime from seeking assistance from global steelmaker Danieli, a company accused by Ukraine of violating similar restrictions in Russia
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How Myanmar’s post-coup economy fuels war and profits the military
Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military elite and those loyal to them have gained unbridled control of lucrative industries ranging from construction to telecommunications to natural resource extraction. The resulting lack of accountability and transparency has launched an ongoing debate about the role of international partners in financing the regime, to which Myanmar Now’s coverage has contributed extensively. In the first article, Myanmar Now explores how junta-affiliated companies—particularly those owned by the adult children of top generals—are “the biggest winners” in the post-coup economy, monopolising lucrative contracts and tenders nationwide, ensuring the military maintains an “oversized role” in business. Second, Myanmar Now exposes how an Australian-led mining company has continued exploratory activities in conflict-torn but gold-rich eastern Shan State amid both the withdrawal of its primary investor and an expansion of extractive activities by military-linked ventures in the region. The article outlines Australia’s historic role in shaping the industry and raises questions about how foreign investments which may be legal are not necessarily ethical. Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor’s exit from Myanmar in 2022 came under fire for potentially exposing the data of some 18 million users to the junta in its sale of its network to entities including the military-linked…
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How Myanmar’s military covers up past crimes against the Rohingya, and erases them from the country’s future
More than five years after the Myanmar army’s genocidal violence that forced some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, Myanmar Now continues to unveil new details about the horrors inflicted at that time, and how the current regime has continued a campaign to erase the minority’s claims to their homeland. Much of what is known about the 2017 attacks has come from witness testimony given by Rohingya refugees forced to live in camps outside the country. Yet among the increasing military defections since 2021 coup have been soldiers who participated in the offensive against the Rohingya. In the first article, Myanmar Now spoke to one such officer, whose accounts confirm and provide new support to survivor testimony as international courts continue investigations into past crimes. The current junta’s forces now occupy much of the land razed and seized by the military in 2017. In the second article, Myanmar Now exposes how hundreds of acres in two townships are set to be handed over to a regime border guard police division, illustrating how Myanmar’s coup has facilitated the continued disenfranchisement of one of the region’s most persecuted communities. ‘Trail of bodies’: defector says military’s top judge came to Rakhine to…
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