The world’s largest shipping company, A.P. Moller – Maersk, has announced it will stop using military-owned ports in Myanmar after facing criticism from UK-based activists.
The Danish company was added to a “Dirty List” of firms linked to human rights abuses in Myanmar by the Burma Campaign UK pressure group in May.
Maersk told the group in a statement that it was now “consolidating” its activity in Myanmar so its ships will only call at the Myanmar International Terminal Thilawa and the Myanmar Industrial Port, neither of which is military-owned.
“We expect this process to be finalised before the end of the month,” the company said.
“Maersk will now be removed from the Dirty List,” Burma Campaign UK said in a statement on Thursday.
“The biggest shipping company in the world deciding not to use military-owned ports is a highly significant move, and will increase pressure on other shipping companies to do the same,” said Mark Farmaner, the group’s director.
The British firm Portia Management Services announced in August that it would stop managing the military-owned TMT port in Yangon after being named on the group’s list.
And in January payments giant Western Union said it would stop using the military-owned Myawaddy Bank as one of its agents in Myanmar following pressure from the group.
Burma Campaign UK also played a key role in forcing British American Tobacco to cut ties with the former military regime in 2003. The firm has since returned to Myanmar.
A United Nations Fact-Finding mission last year called on the international community to sever all business ties with the Myanmar military.
It said that money from business deals with foriegn firms was being used to fund war crimes and crimes against humanity, including what it labelled a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya.
“The campaigns to stop international companies funding human rights violations in Burma are gaining momentum and will keep growing,” said Farmaner.
“These campaigns… are only necessary because the UK, EU and others refuse to implement the recommendations of the UN Fact-Finding Mission and introduce sanctions against military companies,” he added.
Other shipping companies using military-owned ports in Myanmar include the German firms Carsten Rehder, Harren & Partner, and MPC Capital as well as Norse Group, a British Singaporean firm.
