India called for an end to arms exports to war-torn Myanmar

BANGKOK – A pressure group in Myanmar is calling on India to stop selling arms to their war-torn country's military and is asking its Western allies to join the call, singling out Sweden and the United States.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first state visit to the United States last week. Both countries are members of the Quad alliance, along with Australia and Japan, which is widely seen as working to counter China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The pressure group, Justice for Myanmar, says its research has found weapon parts made in India but of Swedish design being shipped to Myanmar, even after a 2021 military coup that overthrew the country's elected government.

UN experts have accused Myanmar's military of crimes against humanity and war crimes as it battles a stubborn armed resistance, killing thousands of civilians and displacing more than 1.5 million people across the country.

While the US, EU and others have imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar, India, which shares a 1,600 kilometer border with the country, remains one of the military regime's few remaining suppliers.

"Indian exports of weapons and dual-use goods and technologies are significant to the Myanmar military and enable it to continue committing war crimes and crimes against humanity," Justice for Myanmar spokeswoman Yadanar Maung told VOA.

She said India's latest broadcasts make it "further complicit" and called on its Quad allies to "step up and start using their influence to stop India's odious support for the junta."

Made in India

Justice For Myanmar said its review of Indian export records found supplies worth more than US$5 million from state-owned Bharat Electronics to Myanmar's military and its known arms brokers between November 2022 and April. It says the shipments included transducers and sonar parts for naval vessels, radar equipment and battlefield radios.

The group said the documents also show a shipment of 20,122mm barrels from Yantra India last October, likely for howitzer artillery pieces of the type the military is reported to have used on civilian targets.

Data from global trade tracking service Panjiva, it adds, shows thousands of explosive fuses shipped to another known arms broker for Myanmar's military in 2019, 2020 and 2022 from India's Sandeep Metalcraft.

Panjiva collects and shares commercial shipping data using government-issued records from 17 countries, including India. Although the records for 2020 and 2022 deliveries do not specify the types of fuses, Justice For Myanmar said the 2019 deliveries were listed as Model 447, for the 84mm Carl Gustaf rifle, a shaft-fired weapon originally designed and manufactured by Sweden. The pressure group said they believe the later fuses were of the same type.

FILE - An exhibitor of SAAB, a Swedish defense company, displays the 85MM Carl-Gustaf, a man-portable artillery system during the 8th International Exhibition of Land and Naval Defense Systems, in New Delhi, India, February 6, 2014.

In September 2022, Swedish arms giant Saab announced plans to build a factory to manufacture the Carl Gustaf rifle in India and to have the facility up and running by 2024.

Given India's ongoing exports, Justice For Myanmar said it worries that the rifles the factory will soon produce could, like the fuses, end up in the junta's hands.

“When Saab manufactures weapons in India, there are no guarantees as to what will happen to these weapons. There may be end-use and end-user requirements set by Sweden and Saab, but we have not seen the terms so there is no way of knowing what, if any, requirements there would be for not reselling to Myanmar, says Yadanar Maung. .

Even with such conditions, there is no practical way to guarantee that the rifles will not be exported, she added, urging Sweden to suspend all licensing and production agreements with Indian arms manufacturers.

Neither Saab nor the Swedish Foreign Ministry responded to VOA's requests for comment.

Bharat, Sandeep, Yantra and India's Ministry of External Affairs also did not respond.

Means to a goal

The Bharat, Sandeep and Yantra shipments are just the latest in a string of Indian arms exports to Myanmar in recent years.

In a report last month, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews said India's arms exports to the post-coup country total at least $51 million.

In his report, Andrews said India has no excuses for not knowing about the Myanmar military's "likely war crimes" and that the exports "likely violate" New Delhi's obligations under the Wassenaar Agreement. The non-binding treaty obliges members, including India, to prevent arms transfers to end users whose behavior becomes "a cause of serious concern."

"India should therefore be aware that the weapons it provides to the Myanmar military ... are likely to be used to commit international crimes," Andrews wrote.

"It would be in the interest of the people of Myanmar for India's state-owned arms manufacturers to stop selling weapons and related materials to the Myanmar military and the government of India to stop approving these arms transfers," he added.

Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies who tracks the region's relations with major powers, said he sees little chance of that.

"For India, arms sales to Myanmar are seen as a way to stay on the right side of the junta and prevent the country from becoming too dependent on China and Russia," he told VOA.

"New Delhi's Quad partners can do little to prevent the transfer of arms from India to Myanmar," he added. "As we have seen with India's policy towards the Russia-Ukraine war, New Delhi is acting to advance what it sees as its national interests, not those of other countries."

Calls all countries

India has recently increased its arms and oil orders from Russia and abstained from votes at the United Nations condemning its invasion of Ukraine. It also joined China and Russia in abstaining from a UN Security Council vote calling for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar in December.

Justice for Myanmar released its latest findings on India's arms exports to Myanmar last week, just ahead of Modi's state visit to the US. It urged Washington to pressure New Delhi to suspend the junta and to exert pressure by placing conditions on its own military aid to India.

VOA asked the US State Department if the US increased arms exports during Modi's stay. In an emailed response, the department's press office said the U.S. "expressed deep concern about the deteriorating situation" in Myanmar during his visit, but it did not provide a direct response to the question.

It said the US urged "the international community and all countries" to block arms exports to Myanmar and that it was "important to stop their flow to prevent the recurrence of atrocities against the people of Burma", another name for Myanmar.

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