The international community must halt the shipment of aviation fuel to Myanmar's military, Amnesty International said in a report, blaming a global fuel supply chain for allowing the junta to conduct deadly air strikes on civilians, Reuters reports.
Myanmar has been gripped by violence since the army overthrew an elected government early last year. Opposition movements, some of them armed, have since emerged across the country, which the military has countered with lethal force.
"There can be no justification for participating in the supply of aviation fuel to a military that has a flagrant contempt for human rights and has been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes," said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
Myanmar has seen a series of air strikes since a coup early last year, resulting in scores of deaths and prompting thousands of people to flee their homes.
The ruling junta has said it does not target civilians with air strikes and its operations are responding to attacks by "terrorists".
An investigation by Amnesty International in collaboration with other groups noted that global trading giant Trafigura's Puma Energy had since 2015 been the main foreign business involved in the supply of aviation fuel to Myanmar.
On Oct 5 this year, Puma Energy announced it was leaving Myanmar and selling its stakes in units Puma Energy Asia Sun (PEAS) and National Energy Puma Aviation Services (NEPAS) to a local private company.
In a statement emailed to Reuters, Puma Energy said that since January 2021, just before the coup, until Oct. 5 this year it limited its operations to providing aviation fuel for civilian purposes and had not supplied the Myanmar air force.
Amnesty cited data obtained from December 2021 to August 2022 that showed some NEPAS storage facilities were linked to military air bases, "showing that civilian and military use of aviation fuel is inextricably linked".
Puma Energy said an independent human rights impact assessment it had commissioned concluded the worsening situation in Myanmar had put at risk its ability to exert its influence and maintain controls to limit NEPAS's supply to only civilian airlines.
"Over the last few months, we have sought to effect a responsible exit," it said.
A spokesman for the military government did not answer calls seeking comment on the report.
The Amnesty report also listed several other international companies it said had played a role in Myanmar's aviation fuel supply chain.
"Today we are calling on suppliers, shipping agents, vessel owners and maritime insurers to withdraw from a supply chain that is benefiting the Myanmar air force," said Amnesty International's Callamard.