UN Myanmar expert calls for cutting junta’s access to arms, oil and gas

The United Nations human rights expert on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said on Tuesday that Russia and China were providing the junta with fighter jets and armoured vehicles, and urged the UN Security Council to halt the flow of arms he said were being used against civilians.

“It should be incontrovertible that weapons used to kill civilians should no longer be transferred to Myanmar,”  Andrews, a former US congressman serving in the independent post, said in a report also naming Serbia as a weapons vendor.

He called for cutting the military’s access to oil and gas and foreign exchange reserves and for preventing states and private sector from buying resources such as timber, gemstones, and rare earths products when funds are channelled to the junta.

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