India supplied $51 million in arms, raw materials to Myanmar military since 2021 coup: UN report

The arms were sent through 22 suppliers, including state-owned companies.

May 18, 2023 - 19:30

India supplied $51 million in arms, raw materials to Myanmar military since 2021 coup: UN report

Indian government-owned companies and private firms in the country have supplied $51 million (around Rs 421 crore) worth of arms, dual-use items and raw materials to the military junta in Myanmar following its takeover of the Southeast Asian nation in February 2021, a United Nations report said on Wednesday.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the country, Tom Andrews, said that the junta and country-sanctioned arms dealers have imported $1 billion (about Rs 8,256 crore) worth of arms, equipment and material from Russia, China, Singapore, Thailand and India.

The report titled, “The Billion Dollar Death Trade: International Arms Networks that Enable Human Rights Violations in Myanmar”, said that UN member states were enabling this trade “either through outright complicity, lax enforcement of existing bans, and easily circumvented sanctions”.

Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021, after the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy won the November 2020 elections. The military has since cracked down on protests against the coup, drawing international condemnation.

In Wednesday’s report, Andrews said that 22 India-based “unique suppliers” shipped arms, dual-use items, manufacturing equipment and raw materials to the Myanmar military.

Among the suppliers were state-owned entities such as Bharat Dynamics, Bharat Electronics and Yantra India and private companies such as Sandeep Metalcraft...