By Karin Valtersson

A military bombing civilian targets with impunity. Women subjected to rape and sexual violence. Photos of young men, arbitrarily arrested, and children, dead in a field. Food production ground to a halt and a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

You would be forgiven if you thought the above referenced Putin’s war in Ukraine, but this is not about Ukraine. It is about Burma. Burma has seen similar scenes of aggression as Ukraine, but for longer and without an external aggressor. In Burma, it is the military waging war on its own people.

For a year and a half, the people of Burma have resisted the military’s attempt at taking back power in a military coup, which started on 1st February 2021 and is still ongoing. The people are resisting the military along multiple lines: through striking from government jobs to outright protests and guerrilla attacks. The military has simultaneously ramped up its conflict with many of Burma’s ethnic armed organisations.

The consequences of the military’s war? Over 2,250 dead, nearly 15,500 arrested and over 700,000 displaced since the coup. A humanitarian catastrophe, with children hiding from bombs in the jungle, with no food or shelter and not able to go to school. The military bombs civilians and civilian infrastructure with impunity, particularly in Burma’s ethnic states. Hospitals, schools, churches, homes: they do not care about the devastation they are causing.

We need to stop the military from killing children and destroying the country. And we can. With carefully crafted aviation fuel sanctions,the British government could help bring the fighter jets, causing such devastation, to a halt. Aviation fuel sanctions are supported by civil society organisations in Burma, human rights organisations globally and over 60 MPs in the British Parliament. The reason is simple: if the planes can’t fly, they can’t bomb.

The new Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly MP, should make it one of his first priorities in office to put in place aviation fuel sanctions on Burma. That way, one of his first acts in office would be saving the lives of many innocent civilians, including children. Surely nothing could be more important for a Foreign Secretary than saving lives?

The new Foreign Secretary should also increase the resources for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to be able to speed up the implementation of sanctions. Since the military coup, the FCDO has taken the right approach by continuously identifying sources of revenue for the military and placing sanctions on these, depriving the Burmese military of funds to buy more weapons. The FCDO needs the capacity to speed up this sanctions process. Since the war in Ukraine, nearly all of the sanctions capability at the FCDO has been focused on Russia, leaving conflicts like the one in Burma behind. The FCDO needs the funds to deal with more than one conflict at a time.

Sanctions implemented by the British government are important not just in themselves but because, since the coup, where the British government has led, other countries have followed. Several of the sanctions announcements have been coordinated with the US and Canada, and information has been shared with the EU, which has also increased its sanctions on the military since the coup. Whether it is sanctions on aviation fuel, or on military financial interests, the British government has the potential to bring with it likeminded nations and increase the impact.

Thirdly, we would ask the new Foreign Secretary to increase humanitarian aid to Burma. This aid needs to be distributed cross-border and through civil society organisations working directly on the ground with the people who need the help. We hear daily from people who have run out of food; who need medical treatment; who have no shelter when they have fled the military. The military is actively blocking aid to areas most in need.

By cutting funds to the Burmese military and increasing funds to Burmese civil society, the new Foreign Secretary could quickly make his mark.

Karin Valtersson is the Campaigns Officer, Burma Campaign UK

Images: c/o Burma Campaign UK. Main image: Displaced civilians in Salween Peace Park_Mutraw demand sanction on aviation fuel