New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) had shipped to the air wing of Myanmar’s military government as many as 52 items in January 2024 “that appear to be for (its) one or several automatic weather stations (AWS),” Justice for Myanmar, a group of activists collating data on “war crimes” in Myanmar has claimed.
In its press note released on past March 27, the group also claimed, “It (the shipment) follows a deployment of 15 Indian Air Force personnel to Myanmar in December 2023 to install (the) meteorological instruments.)
The group which operates covertly “using research, data visualisation and reporting to expose the companies and criminals profiting from brutality, war crimes and mass-scale suffering”, has been accusing India from time to time “of aiding and abetting Myanmar Junta atrocities through continued transfer of military equipment”.
India has not yet responded to any of the accusations of “abetting” the military’s atrocities on its civilians.” This February, after Indian national security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s visit to Bangladesh, its foreign minister Hasan Mahmud said the ongoing conflict between Myanmar’s military with the ethnic armed organisations of that country “is a matter of concern” for both the countries as they share a long border with Myanmar.
India has recently also announced its decision to put t a stop to the Free Movement Regime (FMR) understanding with Myanmar.
Justice for Burma, calling India to “immediately ban the transfer of all arms and associated equipment, technology and fuel to the Myanmar military and to cease all military training”, also named 10 Indian public sector units (PSUs) administered by the Ministry of Defence which have been supplying goods to the junta, particularly to its air force.
The group stated that Myanmar’s military “has increasingly relied on its air force to wage its campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar as it loses control of territory to ethnic resistance organisations and people’s defence forces” during the ongoing conflict.
Stating that “the junta’s use of airstrikes are growing more frequent”, the press note said, “An independent assessment of the junta’s use of airstrikes found that in just the last four months of 2023, the military carried out more than 750 airstrikes, with an average of six airstrikes taking place every day. Airstrikes are indiscriminate, killing civilians including children and destroying whole communities.”
It ranked India as “the third biggest supplier of arms and equipment to Myanmar after Russia and China,” and accused it of “supporting a campaign of terror the junta is waging across the country as the people overwhelmingly reject the military’s illegal February 2021 coup attempt.”
The press note claimed, “An analysis of Indian trade data, corporate disclosures, parliamentary reports and other open-source information casts new light on the Myanmar military’s business with India and exposes the significant role of PSUs and the Indian Air Force.”
“Justice For Myanmar calls on India to immediately ban the transfer of all arms and associated equipment, technology and fuel to the Myanmar military and to cease all military training.”
The group also urged “governments and companies that have business relationships with the Indian military and defence industry” to “use their leverage to urge a ban on all support for the Myanmar Junta.”
