Re: Open letter from 288 diaspora, community organizations, and
NGOs calling for concrete US action in response to recent airstrikes in Kachin
State and other parts of Burma.
Dear Secretary Blinken and
Counselor Chollet,
The October 23rd bombing of a
music festival in Burma’s Kachin State has demonstrated once again that Burma’s
military junta remains unbound by international law and undeterred from its
campaign of unfettered violence that has resulted in repeated atrocities
against the people of Burma. Hundreds of civilians gathered in Hpakant that
Sunday for an evening of festivities as Kachin musicians celebrated the 62nd
anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization. This
celebration became the target of a horrific attack in which at least 80 people
were killed, including the Kachin singer performing on stage, after multiple
fighter jets dropped bombs on the peaceful gathering. The junta is reportedly
refusing to allow medical personnel to bring the wounded to nearby hospitals
for treatment, with reports of individuals dying from lack of urgent care -
another affront that shows how little the junta cares for civilian lives.
Though this attack was
exceedingly horrific, it is far from an isolated incident. Airstrikes are a
core component of the junta’s efforts to supplement its increasingly isolated
ground forces with a direct campaign against Burmese civilians. Burma’s
National Unity Government estimates that the junta has launched over 200
airstrikes since the start of the coup, killing hundreds, destroying dozens of
homes, and terrorizing civilians across the country.
In total, post-coup violence
has displaced over 1,000,000 people while the junta has reportedly killed over
2,300 civilians. The junta continues to escalate its indiscriminate attacks on
and deliberate targeting of civilians, confident that the international
community is too divided and distracted to push back meaningfully against
junta’s violent excesses.
It is imperative that the international
community end this sense of impunity and demonstrate that committing atrocities
does have meaningful costs. The United States must respond to this violence
with concrete and decisive action. Condemnations are appreciated, but
insufficient as a response to horrors of this magnitude.
For months, activists in
Burma have called for international action that would reduce the junta’s
capacity to commit atrocities, deny the junta access to funding, and begin to
hold the military accountable for its crimes. In spite of the clarity of these asks
from Burmese political leaders in the National Unity Government, Burmese
humanitarian and civil society organizations, and the international advocacy
community, US policy has failed to meet the demands of the current moment.
We, the undersigned community
organizations, NGOs, and those working to promote justice, accountability, and
human rights in Burma call on President Biden and his administration to
decisively take the following actions:
1. Restrict junta access to
funding: Prevent the junta from receiving the revenues that fund its war of
oppression against the people of Burma. Immediately place sanctions on the
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, the main
business entities responsible for supplying the junta with foreign currency.
2. Restrict junta access to jet
fuel: Without jet fuel, the junta cannot conduct airstrikes or transport
soldiers to remote villages to terrorize local populations. Place sanctions on
all companies involved in the provision of jet fuel to Burma’s military and
work with international partners, and in particular Singapore, to control the
shipment of jet fuel into Burma.
3. Restrict junta access to arms:
The US should push for the tabling of a UN Security Council Resolution that
would place a comprehensive and coordinated arms embargo on the junta. The US
should also directly sanction companies involved in the supply of arms and
dual-use technologies to the junta.
4. Address junta impunity: Join
the Rohingya case at the International Court of Justice and commit to further
supporting investigations into junta atrocities at other international fora. In
addition to these immediate actions we urge the Biden Administration to
continue to increase its political and material support to opponents of the junta,
especially the National Unity Government (NUG), the National Unity Consultative
Council, and representatives of the Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs). The
US should urge ASEAN to engage directly with the NUG and EROs, including by
accepting representatives from the NUG as Burma’s representative at ASEAN
meetings and forums.
The US should also work with
partners to ensure that humanitarian aid is provided in a way that does not
grant legitimacy to the junta, including by providing aid through the NUG and
Burmese humanitarian organizations that are unaffiliated with the junta.
The military junta continues to
escalate its campaign of depraved violence even as the people of Burma risk
their lives to oppose the junta’s brutality and expose its crimes. The people
of Burma deserve your full support, and failure to act will simply encourage
the junta to continue escalating its attacks on civilians. The US response must
rise to meet the moment.
Signed,
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