Israel Continues To Arm Burma Military Amid Ongoing Violence Against Rohingya Muslims
03 September 2017Bethan McKernan
Beirut
Israel is under fire from human rights groups for the continued sale of
weaponry to the Burmese junta after intensified violence against the country's
Rohingya Muslim minority.
More than 100 tanks, as well as boats and light weapons, have been sold to the
Burmese government by Israeli arms companies, investigations by several rights
watchdogs have found.
One company, TAR Ideal Concepts, has also trained Burmese special forces in
northern Rakhine state, where much of the violence is taking place, posting
pictures on their website of its staff teaching combat tactics and how to
handle weapons.
An army crackdown triggered by an attack on 25 August by Rohingya insurgents
on Burma security forces has triggered a major humanitarian crisis. At least
400 people have been killed and nearly 125,000 Rohingya have fled to
neighbouring Bangladesh.
There is a US and EU embargo on selling arms to the South East Asian country,
which was until recently under military rule. Israel's high court will decide
on whether to ban arms sales to the country later this month after a petition
by Israeli acitivists.
In March, the Israeli defence ministry defended sales, saying that the courts
had no jurisdiction over a "diplomatic" issue.
"Successive Israeli governments have been selling arms to the military
dictatorship in Burma for years," Ofer Neiman, an Israeli human rights
activist, told Middle East Eye.
"This policy is strongly related to Israel's oppression and dispossession of
the Palestinian people. Weapons used against the Palestinians are being sold
as 'field-tested' to some of the worst regimes on the planet."
Graphic photo and video from the region show beheaded children and entire
villages burnt to the ground by military and paramilitary forces.
The violence has been condemned by the international community; Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan labelled it a "genocide" last week.
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