Responding to the news that FIFA President Gianni Infantino has written a letter to all 32 nations competing at the 2022 World Cup, urging them to ‘focus on the football’ and to set aside human rights concerns, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said:

“If Gianni Infantino wants the world to ‘focus on the football’ there is a simple solution: FIFA could finally start tackling the serious human rights issues rather than brushing them under the carpet. A first step would be publicly committing to the establishment of a fund to compensate migrant workers before the tournament kicks off and ensuring that LGBT people do not face discrimination or harassment. It is astonishing they still have not done so. 

“Gianni Infantino is right to say that ‘football does not exist in a vacuum’. Hundreds of thousands of workers have faced abuses to make this tournament possible and their rights cannot be forgotten or dismissed. They deserve justice and compensation, not empty words, and time is running out.”   

Background

Gianni Infantino’s letter can be viewed at the bottom of this article. In May 2022 – Amnesty and a coalition of organisations launched a campaign calling on Qatar and FIFA to establish a comprehensive remediation programme to compensate migrant workers who suffered abuses in the preparation and delivery of Qatar 2022. Since then, the call has garnered the support of many FAs and World Cup sponsors and FIFA’s senior leadership have acknowledged the importance of compensation, though the footballing body is yet to publicly commit to doing so.

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Responding to the signing of a peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) following two years of brutal conflict, Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, said:

“The signing of a peace agreement on Wednesday is a step in the right direction, yet further strides must be taken to address the accountability deficit that has permeated the conflict since it began. All parties to the war have committed unspeakable abuses, including mass, extrajudicial executions and sexual violence against women and girls. These appalling crimes cannot simply be washed away.

The accord fails to offer a clear roadmap on how to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity

Muleya Mwananyanda, Director for East and Southern Africa

“At present, the accord fails to offer a clear roadmap on how to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and overlooks rampant impunity in the country, which could lead to violations being repeated.

“To ensure justice for victims and survivors of atrocities, the Ethiopian authorities must allow unfettered access to human rights investigators, including the UN-mandated International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. They must also provide humanitarian corridors so that the thousands of people facing starvation and medical emergencies can get the assistance they need.”

To ensure justice for victims and survivors of atrocities, the Ethiopian authorities must allow unfettered access to human rights investigators,

Muleya Mwananyanda

Background

The signing of the peace agreement on Wednesday follows a week of negotiations and two years of fighting. The armed conflict in Ethiopia pits forces aligned with Ethiopia’s federal government against those affiliated with Tigray’s regional government led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Amid the conflict, millions of civilians have been displaced, while thousands of people have been killed due to ethnic violence. The region has been largely cut off from the outside world, and so humanitarian aid has also been denied to millions of people in Tigray.

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Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard will attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh between 6-18 November 2022 and is available for interviews about the need to centre climate decisions in human rights and Egypt’s ongoing human rights crisis.

In addition to urging meaningful, coordinated, global action addressing the climate crisis, Amnesty International is calling on world leaders to publicly demonstrate their solidarity with Egypt’s embattled civil society and put pressure on Egyptian authorities to end their years-long assault on human rights. 

No state can claim to be a credible player in addressing the climate crisis while continuing to tighten its chokehold on civil society.

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International

Ahead of her visit, Agnès Callamard said:

“It is quite simple: we no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to the global climate crisis. The window to keep average global temperatures within 1.5°C is rapidly closing and, as it does, the world is faced with floods, droughts, and fires – leading to forced migration and famine as well as further conflict and death. COP27 is a key opportunity to reverse this course and must not be wasted in a theatre of empty promises and greenwashing.

“While action on climate change will require significant planning and coordination, the negotiations must not get bogged down in technocratic details and lose sight of the human beings on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

“Climate change is a human rights crisis and fulfilling all human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, is key to securing a rapid and just transition to zero-carbon economies and resilient societies.

“No state can claim to be a credible player in addressing the climate crisis while continuing to tighten its chokehold on civil society. The Egyptian authorities have committed a litany of crimes under international law, including torture, unlawful killings and enforced disappearances. Nearly all independent and critical voices have been silenced in the country.”

During her time in Egypt, Agnès Callamard will call on COP27 delegates to:

• Put human rights, including labour rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, at the centre of all COP27 negotiations and decisions.
• Protect 1.5 by reviewing and updating 2030 emissions targets to ensure they are fully aligned with the 1.5°C imperative.
• Commit to a rapid and equitable fossil fuel phase out rather than relying on carbon markets and carbon removal mechanisms.
• Create a clear plan for wealthy states to increase contributions to financing climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Establish a financial facility to provide timely support and remedy to people and communities whose human rights have been violated as the result of loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.
• Stand in solidarity with Egyptian human rights organizations and reiterate their COP27 Petition calls to release all those arbitrarily detained and open civic space in Egypt.

Amnesty International will be closely watching the Egyptian authorities’ policing of protests as well as their treatment of, and any reprisals against, environmental activists and human rights defenders during and after COP27.The organisation has sought meetings with the Egyptian authorities and requested access to prisons where thousands are being held for politically motivated reasons. Amnesty International is urging state delegates to raise human rights concerns with the Egyptian authorities in line with the demands of independent Egyptian human rights groups in this petition. 

Background

COP27 is taking place amid concerns over the Egyptian authorities and UNFCCC’ failure to accredit independent Egyptian human rights groups for COP27. Additional barriers for the meaningful participation of a wide range of stakeholders include mandatory registration processes for access to the Green Zone, unaffordable hotel prices and increased surveillance and security checks. Authorities have ordered workers without security clearance to leave the city or observe severe restrictions on movement. The recent arrests of at least 118 individuals as of 31 October in Cairo alone connection to calls for protests during COP27 and the proliferation of random police stops and illegal phone searches for critical content serve as a grim reminder of the pervasive repression of civil society in Egypt.

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More than 760,000 people across 218 countries and territories have added their voices to petitions calling for the establishment of an independent UN mechanism to conduct investigations as a step towards pursuing accountability for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Iran, Amnesty International said today.

On 2 November, Nazanin Boniadi, a British-Iranian actor and Amnesty International UK Ambassador, conveyed people’s demands for immediate action by the UN Human Rights Council to United Nations officials in New York. Amnesty International national entities across the world also delivered petitions to their ministries of foreign affairs.

“The people of Iran continue to courageously protest and call for the end of widespread repression and the establishment of a political system that respects equality and upholds human rights. Will member states of the UN Human Rights Council respond to the cries of people in Iran and activists across the globe to urgently establish an international mechanism on crimes committed by the Iranian authorities?” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The international community’s failure to act has emboldened the Iranian authorities to intensify their unlawful use of force, including lethal force, against protesters, killing over 200 people, including 30 children, since protests began on 16 September. The UN Human Rights Council must immediately convene a special session on Iran to prevent further crimes under international law and human rights violations, including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment against all those arbitrarily detained since the authorities’ crackdown on protests began.”

Last week, 10 UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, called on the Human Rights Council to urgently take action, including by establishing an international investigative mechanism on Iran during a special session. This call is also supported by Amnesty International and 42 other human rights organizations. The German minister of foreign affairs has announced that Germany would advocate for convening a special session to establish a UN mechanism on Iran.

Vicious cycles of protest bloodshed

The Iranian authorities’ violent repression of ongoing protests in Iran, which erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini on 16 September 2022, is the latest in the cycle of attacks waged by the Iranian authorities against people expressing their legitimate grievances in Iran since December 2017-January 2018. Emboldened by rampant impunity, the Iranian authorities have consistently dealt with waves of mass protests since then, including those in November 2019, January 2020, July 2021, August 2021, November 2021 and May 2022, with a militarized response.

Will member states of the UN Human Rights Council respond to the cries of people in Iran and activists across the globe…?

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International

Amnesty International has previously documented crimes under international law and serious human rights violations by the Iranian authorities, including unlawful killings following unwarranted lethal use of force, mass arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, and the sentencing of individuals to lengthy prison terms or death following grossly unfair trials.

The Iranian authorities have ignored repeated calls by the international community to open criminal investigations into unlawful killings committed in the context of protests since December 2017. Instead, they have sought to destroy evidence of their crimes while persecuting survivors and victims’ relatives who called out for truth, justice, and reparation.

To break this deadly cycle, the UN mechanism must be urgently established with a mandate to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding the crimes under international law and serious violations of human rights committed by the Iranian authorities to crush successive nationwide protests since the December 2017- January 2018 protests with the view of pursuing accountability.

Background

People from around the world have taken action to call on UN states to urgently establish an independent UN investigative mechanism, including from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Egypt, France, Italy, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and beyond.

Amnesty International has previously revealed how Iran’s highest military body instructed the armed forces in all provinces to “severely confront” protesters who took to the streets following the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini after she was arrested by Iran’s “morality” police who routinely arbitrarily detain women who do not comply with the country’s abusive and discriminatory compulsory veiling laws. The organization has also repeatedly documented the widespread, unwarranted use of lethal force and firearms by Iran’s security forces who either intended to kill protesters or should have known with a reasonable degree of certainty that their use of firearms would result in deaths.

Last week, Iran’s security forces intensified their use of unlawful force by using live ammunition, metal pellets and teargas against protesters and mourners who had gathered in at least four provinces, including Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces.

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Supply Chain of JET A-1 Fuel

ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS

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Around 1am on 17 January 2022, Myanmar military fighter jets dropped two bombs on Ree Khee Bu camp for displaced persons in Kayah State. The attack killed Nu Nu, a man in his 50s, as well as Maria and Caroline, sisters who were around 15 and 12 years old. 

The camp was a refuge for people fleeing violence, but even there, civilians could not escape the Myanmar military and its deadly air campaign.

For the first time since the military coup of February 2021, Amnesty International, in collaboration with Justice For Myanmar, presents a detailed account of one of the most secretive business operations in Myanmar – the supply of aviation fuel to the military.

After the military coup in 2021 and the brutal crackdown on protestors, fighting between the Myanmar military and armed groups across the country escalated significantly.  

Increasingly the Myanmar military relies on its air force, which regularly carries out air strikes with fighter jets and attack helicopters.  

The impact on civilians is often devastating.

Every time I hear the planes flying over our village, I feel unsafe and afraid…

Witness

The Myanmar military relies on aviation fuel that is supplied, imported, handled, stored and distributed by a number of companies, both foreign and domestic. 

Amnesty International’s newest report provides a detailed account of this supply chain – from the port where the fuel originally departs to air strikes conducted by the Myanmar air force that amount to war crimes.

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The corporate supply chain bringing Jet-A1 to Myanmar

Since 2015, the main foreign business actor involved in the supply chain of aviation fuel has been Puma Energy – a global energy company incorporated in Singapore that is based in large part out of Geneva, Switzerland, and beneficially owned by global commodity giant Trafigura.  

This report shows how Puma Energy’s two Myanmar affiliates – fully owned Puma Energy Asia Sun (PEAS) and joint venture National Energy Puma Aviation Services (NEPAS) – played a role in supplying aviation fuel to the Myanmar military. PEAS is responsible for handling and storing aviation fuel delivered to Thilawa port terminal, Yangon, and NEPAS for procuring, selling, distributing aviation fuel as well as providing refueling services at 11 Myanmar airports.

Puma Energy announced on 5 October 2022 that it was selling its assets in Myanmar and exiting the country. It also communicated to Amnesty International that since the February 2021 military coup, it “has not supplied, sold or distributed any fuel or products to the Myanmar Air Force.” However, Puma Energy also explained that it decided to leave Myanmar in part because it had received reports “of incidents where the MAF [Myanmar Air Force] had been able to breach controls that were put in place to maintain the segregation of civilian supply.” Puma Energy has not provided a date of its planned departure and as of 3 November 2022, the company explained that it continues to own PEAS and have a minority stake in NEPAS. 

Corporate supply chain

Amnesty International / Colin Foo

Suppliers transport Jet A-1 by sea

Amnesty International found the Myanmar military uses Jet A-1, a type of aviation fuel that is also used by the majority of commercial aircraft.

Amnesty International / Colin Foo

PEAS terminal at Thilawa port receives and stores Jet A-1

The majority of Jet A-1 fuel enters Myanmar through a terminal operated by PEAS at Thilawa port.  

Between February 2021 and 17 September 2022, at least seven oil tankers offloaded eight shipments of Jet A-1 at the PEAS terminal in Thilawa port for a combined import volume of 66,626 metric tons (MT) in 2021 and 31,577 MT in 2022. 

Amnesty International confirmed the supplier of four of the eight shipments: PetroChina’s wholly-owned Singapore Petroleum Company (December 2021), Rosneft (December 2021), Chevron (February 2022) and Thai Oil (June 2022). In addition, vessel tracking data links ExxonMobil to a shipment of aviation fuel that departed from its refinery in Singapore and arrived in Myanmar in June 2022.

Chevron, Rosneft and Thai Oil explained to Amnesty International that their shipments were meant to be used for civilian purposes only. However, Amnesty International obtained leaked documents showing how the shipments supplied by Singapore Petroleum Company and Thai Oil were delivered directly to the Myanmar military on arrival at the port.  

After Amnesty International shared these findings with Thai Oil, the company responded stating that in order “to avoid any doubt about the compliance of good corporate governance policy, our business unit has decided to hold a selling of Jet A-1 to Myanmar until no such concerned issue.” Singapore Petroleum Company did not respond to Amnesty International’s multiple letters. 

Trucks distribute Jet A-1 across Myanmar

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On arrival, the aviation fuel is stored at fuel tanks in the PEAS terminal. From there, Jet A-1 is loaded onto tanker trucks, which transport it across the country.

According to Amnesty International’s research, the main distributor of NEPAS’ Jet A-1 is a transport contractor known as Cargo Link Petroleum Logistics. The Asia Sun Group, a medium-sized Myanmar business conglomerate that owns various companies, including Cargo Link Petroleum – did not respond to Amnesty International’s letters.

Truck deliveries

Amnesty International / Colin Foo

Amnesty International obtained records that detail how trucks of Cargo Link Petroleum transport aviation fuel to NEPAS storage facilities at commercial airports and separately to air bases on behalf of the Myanmar military.  

Significantly, there is a direct link between certain NEPAS storage facilities to which fuel was delivered and military air bases, a few of which Amnesty International has linked to war crimes. Click on the map below to see these connections.

At military bases, Jet A-1 is loaded onto aircraft

The military uses different air bases depending on the particular state or region that it is surveilling or attacking. In order to power the aircraft involved in such operations, it relies on aviation fuel delivered to its air bases.

© 2022 Planet Labs, Inc

© 2022 Maxar Technologies

© 2022 Maxar Technologies

© 2022 Maxar Technologies

Amnesty International has identified at least five air bases from where military aircraft involved in attacks departed between March 2021 and August 2022:  

Jet A-1 fuels a deadly air campaign

On 5 February 2022, ground spotters reported two YAK-130 jets taking off from Hwambi Air Base at 12:46am heading to Hpapun District.

Shortly after 1am, two aircraft attacked houses in Ta Dwee Koh village, in Hpapun District. A 38 year-old farmer awoke to the sound of aircraft.

Shortly after, the shockwave from the blast threw one of his two daughters away from him and caused a serious injury to his 23-year-old wife’s lower spine. Two of his extended family members were killed in the house next door.  

The man told Amnesty International that military aircraft had been flying over the area for some time, adding, “We thought that they won’t launch an air strike as they have no enemy in our village… I don’t know [why they struck us]… I don’t understand why they cause trouble to civilians.” 

Credit @KPSN19

Amnesty International documented 16 unlawful air attacks that took place between March 2021 and August 2022 in Kayah, Kayin and Chin States as well as Sagaing Region. The attacks collectively killed at least 15 civilians and injured at least 36 other civilians. They also destroyed homes, religious buildings, schools, medical facilities and a camp for displaced persons.

Deadly cluster munitions used against civilians

In the course of this research, Amnesty International has documented multiple occasions where the Myanmar air force has employed cluster munitions.

In Chin State’s Chat village, in Mindat Township, community leaders, residents, and members of a local People’s Defence Force (PDF) held a meeting on 2 July 2022 in the village’s only school to discuss several issues, including education and development projects as well as security. Dozens of civilians packed a hall in the school’s compound; on a day off from school, many children were in attendance with family members or were playing in the vicinity. Close to 11am, people inside and outside the hall heard the sound of a fighter jet. 

According to witness testimonies, there were multiple bombing runs that likely involved more than one fighter jet. The school hall where the meeting was held and the teachers’ dormitory next to it were destroyed, and classrooms sustained significant damage; at least four houses were also destroyed, two of them completely. Around 13 civilians were injured in the attack; roughly half of the village’s few hundred residents have abandoned their homes. Three PDF members who were inside the hall were killed. 

Among the weapons used in Mindat Township were cluster munitions, which are widely banned because they are inherently indiscriminate. This attack constitutes a war crime.

Civilians attacked in schools and places of worship

Myanmar military air strikes have also destroyed civilian objects that have specific protections under international humanitarian law, including religious buildings and schools. 

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Amnesty International

© Chin Human Rights Organization

© Chin Human Rights Organization

© Chin Human Rights Organization

Attacks on medical facilities

Amnesty International documented three air attacks on medical facilities. International humanitarian law affords special protection to specific persons and objects, including medical personnel and medical units. Facilities and personnel used solely for the purpose of providing medical care should be protected from attacks in all circumstances.  

On 9 August 2022, around 10am, a fighter jet fired on a health centre in Daw Par Pa village, Kayah State. Twelve people were inside, including medical professionals.  

Jets passed over the medical facility multiple times, firing machine guns and at least one 80mm S-8KOM rocket.

I was standing beside the doctor as he was examining an asthma patient… As we were caring for the patient, one man said, 'I hear the sound of shooting.' The man stepped outside and then I heard the bombing…  

Witness

The health centre, the only medical facility with a doctor in the area, had been operational for one month before the attack. There was no fighting in the area and no armed group base in the vicinity. This attack on the Daw Par Pa clinic amounts to a war crime. 

Conclusion

In the vast majority of cases documented by Amnesty International, only civilians appear to have been present at the location of the strike at the time of the attack. In a few instances where armed group fighters were at the scene or nearby, the military’s indiscriminate use of large unguided bombs and inherently inaccurate rockets in populated civilian areas still constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law and, when civilians were killed or injured as a result, a war crime.  

Such strikes have caused massive disruptions to people’s lives, including affecting their ability to farm their lands and to move around; they have also sparked widespread fear and resulted in mass displacement, at times of entire villages. 

The unlawful air strikes have occurred together with the relentless shelling of villages with artillery and mortars, at times deliberately and at times indiscriminately; the use of internationally banned anti-personnel landmines that have killed and injured civilians; extrajudicial executions; torture and other ill-treatment; arbitrary detention; the burning of villages; and pillage, among other crimes.  

Without the provision of aviation fuel, the Myanmar military would have no means to power the aircraft responsible for such air attacks. And yet companies continue to be part of this deadly supply chain, one that links international and domestic companies to the Myanmar military, which has been implicated by Amnesty International, the United Nations, and others in war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations. 

Amnesty International

Sign now – Ask companies and governments across the globe to help end the bloody oppression by the military in Myanmar

Since Myanmar military's coup on 1 February 2021, over 2,400 people have been killed there, including by unlawful air strikes.

Without aviation fuel, the Myanmar military would not be able to conduct its air attacks. We have uncovered disturbing evidence that several companies have been part of the supply chain that allows fuel to enter the country, despite the risks of that fuel being used to carry out deadly air strikes.

These businesses have a responsibility to assess the adverse human rights impact of their operations and partnerships. This means ending all involvement in the supply of aviation fuel to the Myanmar military, which is responsible for air strikes that amount to war crimes.

States also have a duty to protect against human rights abuses everywhere. That's why we're also calling on governments to act now and suspend the supply of aviation fuel to Myanmar.   

Companies and governments across the globe must take a pledge and be part of the solution to ending the bloody oppression by the military in Myanmar.

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