Amnesty Report: Businesses supporting Myanmar abuses

NOT FOR USE (AP) — The overwhelming control of Myanmar’s economy by the military through some of its biggest companies means its foreign and domestic business partners are likely supporting military units and leaders suspected of human rights abuses, critics say.

A report by Amnesty International released Thursday details some of those links with Myanma Economic Holdings PLC a huge conglomerate that was set up by the military in 1990.

The human rights group is urging the government and companies that partner with the company, known as MEHL, to cut ties that may be helping to finance such activities, including atrocities against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.

MEHL's foreign business partners include South Korean companies steel maker Posco International, trading company Pan-Pacific and the Inno Group; RMH Singapore Pte, formerly owned by British American Tobacco; China's Wanbao Mining, which jointly operates copper mines in Myanmar, and beverage manufacturer Kirin of Japan.

Some of MEHL's domestic and foreign partners, including Kirin, have said they are investigating the concerns raised by the report. Others have not.

The Amnesty report, compiled in collaboration with the human rights group Justice for Myanmar, outlines links between key military units and leaders involved in what Myanmar's military has called a clearance campaign in the northwestern Rakhine. It was home to more than 700,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh and other countries since August 2017.

U.N. investigations have found the army in the Buddhist-majority country have directed massacres and other crimes against the Rohingya. The government has denied accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes.

Myanmar’s...