Myanmar Brewery nets Kirin, MEHL $155.9 million amid ongoing human rights investigation

Despite military conglomerate’s 2016 transfer of most revenue from public to private hands, NLD government awards it ‘outstanding taxpayer’ prize

Danny Fenster

Published on Aug 11, 2020

Kirin is the majority owner of both the Myanmar Brewery and the Mandalay Brewery in joint ventures with the military-owned Myanma Economic Holdings Limited, together producing about 80% of the beer consumed in Myanmar. (Photo: Kirin)

Two months after the Japanese beer giant Kirin announced it was considering cutting ties with its military-conglomerate partner, a brewery the two jointly own announced $155.9m (212bn kyat) in second-quarter revenue.

The military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) owns 49% of the Myanmar Brewery, maker of Myanmar Beer, and Kirin owns the remaining 51%. Together, the companies – which also jointly own Mandalay Brewery – produce about 80% of the beer sold in Myanmar.

Earlier this year, Kirin announced it had hired independent investigators to determine if MEHL’s profits help fund what many have called grave human rights abuses by the Myanmar military.

A 2019 UN fact-finding mission on the military’s economic interests found that profits made by MEHL help fund what it labeled international war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the military, possibly including genocide. The military denies these allegations.

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MEHL is headed by Tatmadaw commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who the UN mission recommended be tried for genocide for his leadership of what it called a campaign of mass murder, rape and arson against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in August 2017.

Myanmar is currently being tried on charges of genocide brought by Gambia at the International Court of Justice over the campaign.

Kirin representatives declined to comment while the company’s investigation is ongoing, but said the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed the process down some.

That didn’t stop its earnings report from prompting a new round of condemnation from human rights groups on Friday.

“August 25 will mark the third anniversary of the Myanmar military’s campaign of genocide against the Rohingya,” rights group Justice for Myanmar noted. It’s joint venture with Kirin “has enabled the military to continue to commit international human rights crimes against ethnic communities” throughout Myanmar, it added.

“These profits are paying for violations of international law,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK.

Kirin has repeatedly said it takes the allegations from the UN mission – and human rights groups more generally – “very seriously,” and that it is committed to “identifying, preventing and mitigating” any human rights violations its businesses in Myanmar can.

Rights groups were again outraged on Monday when president U Win Myint awarded MEHL and the Myanmar Brewery with separate “outstanding taxpayer” awards.

MEHL is a massive conglomerate that controls large sector’s of Myanmar’s economy, including precious stone mining, timber, imports and exports and tobacco. In 2016, immediately before the National League for Democracy (NLD) took power, it changed its shareholder structure to divert revenue from the national budget into private hands.

Previously, shareholders were divided into two groups. Type A Shares were for the governmental defence ministry and type B for individual military units and organisations run by retired officers and servicemen and active and former military personnel. Weeks before the NLD government was inaugurated, MEHL converted all type A shares into type B – moving most of the company’s profits from the national budget into the pockets of individual military men, save for those it paid in taxes.

“The military cartel’s tax contributions are insignificant compared to their massive profits and accumulated assets, stolen from the people of Myanmar,” Justice for Myanmar said in a Facebook post Tuesday, adding that the awards demonstrate “the monopolistic hold the military continues to have on the Myanmar economy, despite a near full-term of National League for Democracy-led government.”

“The Myanmar military has used taxpaying as a way of legitimising their cartel, by claiming that they are contributing to the national economy, when in fact they are impoverishing the country,” it added.

Military and MEHL representatives could not be reached for comment.

In June, after MEHL ignored document requests from a Kirin due diligence effort, the Japanese company hired financial consultancy Deloitte “to determine the destination of proceeds” from the Myanmar Brewery.

It added that it was “exploring alternative structural options for the ownership of the Myanmar joint-ventures,” but representatives declined to provide further details on what that might mean.

“The Deloitte investigation appears to be a desperate attempt by Kirin to find some technicality it can use to stay in business with the military,” Farmaner said Friday, after the earnings report was released.

Finding certain financial and stakeholder information on MEHL should not be as hard as it has been for active or potential partners and the media. As a public company with more than 100 shareholders, it is required under Myanmar’s Securities and Exchange Law to publish regular financial statements and information on its major shareholders to its website, but it has never done so.

Under the Myanmar Companies Law it must also file financial statements with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) – a filing that automatically puts those statements in the public domain, according to Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB).

The company has filed regular statements to DICA but these documents still remain inaccessible to journalists and to the public.

On June 3 the company filed a notice with DICA to alter its constitution. This filing is also supposed to be made public, though it has not been.

Danny Fenster

Danny Fenster is an editor at Myanmar Now.

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Win Htein to be tried by tribunal of two judges, says his lawyer

Announcement came as court postponed the 82-year-old’s third hearing, meaning his request for bail on health grounds was not considered

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Win Htein arrives for the opening ceremony of the second session of the Union Peace Conference in 2017 (EPA-EFE)

Detained National League for Democracy party stalwart Win Htein is to be tried by a special tribunal of two judges following an order from the military-controlled Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Friday.

“It was just one judge before, and now there’s two,” Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

“District judge Ye Lwin will serve as chair, and deputy district judge Soe Naing will be a member of the tribunal,” she added.

Win Htein faces up to a 20-year prison sentence for sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code.

His third hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, with the court citing the internet shutdown as the reason because it made video conferencing impossible, Min Min Soe said.

“The arguments will be presented at the next hearing, we applied for bail but since they’re setting up a tribunal for the lawsuit, that will be discussed at the next hearing as well,” she said.

At the second hearing on March 5, Win Htein requested an independent judgement, a meeting with his lawyer, and bail due to his health issues, but the court said those requests would be heard on March 19.

Win Htein, 82, uses a wheelchair and suffers from breathing problems that means he often requires an oxygen tank. He also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Min Min Soe was allowed a brief call with her client on Friday to tell him that his hearing had been postponed until April 2.

Aye Lu, the chair of the Ottara district administration council in Naypyitaw, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Win Htein. Ottara district is where the NLD’s temporary headquarters are located.

Aye Lu filed the charge on February 4 and Win Htein was arrested that evening at his home in Yangon. He has been kept in the Naypyitaw detention center and denied visits from his lawyers.

He was detained after giving media interviews in the wake of the February 1 coup in which he said military chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on personal ambition when seizing power.

On Wednesday the military council announced that it was investigating Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption, on top of other charges announced since her arrest.

Many other NLD leaders, party members and MPs have been arrested or are the subject of warrants.

Kyi Toe, a senior figure in the NLD, was arrested on Thursday night in Hledan, Yangon.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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Op-ed

Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

The country’s military leaders have acted with impunity for decades, but now there is a mechanism to bring them to justice

Lin Htet

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Nationwide protests against the coup have been responded with murders, torture and mass arrests by the military regime. (Myanmar Now)

On March 8, U Ko Ko Lay, a 62-year-old teacher, bled to death on a street in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina. He had been shot in the head while protesting the military coup of February 1. That same night, U Zaw Myat Lynn, an official from the National League for Democracy, was taken from his home in Shwepyithar on the outskirts of Yangon and tortured to death. The list keeps growing.

In the more than six weeks since Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power, images of soldiers and police officers shooting, beating, and arresting protesters have flooded social media and Myanmar and international news outlets. So far, the regime’s forces have killed well over 200 people (more than half of them in the past week) and seriously injured many more. The junta has also arrested nearly 2,200 people, some of whom, like U Zaw Myat Lynn, have died in custody.

Each day, Myanmar human rights organizations update lists with names, dates, locations, and causes of death. Around 600 police and a handful of soldiers have decided they do not want to be involved in such actions. They have left their posts and even joined the anti-coup movement.

Many soldiers, police officers, and commanding officers are acting with impunity now. But they can face prosecution, not only in Myanmar’s courts but also internationally. Like any country, Myanmar is subject to international law. Because of its history of atrocities, most recently against the Rohingya people, Myanmar is also already subject to special international legal proceedings that apply to the current situation.

The most relevant is the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). The IIMM was created in 2018 after the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya people, but it applies to the whole country. Its mission is to investigate “international crimes” from 2011 to the present.

International crimes are generally defined as “widespread and systematic” in nature, involving many victims and locations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

In keeping with its mandate, the IIMM is collecting information on the current situation. In a statement released on February 11 (available in Myanmar here), it highlighted the “use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the detention of political leaders, members of civil society and protesters.”

More recently, on March 17, the IIMM also called on recipients of illegal orders to share this evidence so that those ultimately responsible for these crimes can be held accountable.

"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions. They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” the head of the IIMM, Nicholas Koumjian, says in the statement (available in Myanmar here).

The crimes the IIMM investigates could be tried in Myanmar courts, courts in other countries, or international courts. International crimes are crimes that are so serious that they are considered to be against the international community, and are therefore not limited to courts in one country.

In other words, an international crime committed in Myanmar—for example, widespread and systematic attacks on civilians—can be tried in a court in another country or in an international court.

The Myanmar military is used to getting away with murder. Decades of well-documented killing, rape, and torture of civilians in ethnic minority areas have gone unpunished. No one has ever been tried for the killing of protesters during previous mass uprisings against military rule in 1988 and 2007.

But this time may be different. On March 4, the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement that “the killing of peaceful protesters by Myanmar’s security forces should be independently investigated as possible crimes against humanity.”

The IIMM is already set up and working. It provides a mechanism for just such an investigation. Those doing the shooting should be aware of this.

For further information:

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Facebook

International Accountability Mechanisms for Myanmar (learning materials in English, Myanmar, and Karen)

Lin Htet is a pen name for a team of Myanmar and international writers

Lin Htet

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At least eight killed in junta’s bloody crackdown in Aungban, Shan State

A resident said armed forces used drones to monitor the crowd before opening fire on them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Men carry a wounded protester in Aungban, Shan State, on the morning of March 19 (Supplied)

At least eight anti-coup protesters were killed in Aungban, southern Shan State, during an attack by the military junta on demonstrations on Friday morning, according to the Aungban Free Funeral Service Society.

Sixteen military trucks carrying more than 100 policemen and soldiers arrived at the protest site at around 9:00 a.m. and began shooting at protesters. Seven died at the scene, and another protester who had been shot in the neck was taken to Kalaw Hospital and died by 11:00 a.m.

All eight victims were men.

The body of the man who died at the hospital was sent to his family’s home, but those who were killed at the protest site were taken away by the junta’s armed forces, a representative of the Free Funeral Service Society told Myanmar Now.

Aungban resident Nay Lynn Tun told Myanmar Now that police and soldiers had destroyed the doors of nearby homes in order to arrest people, and that at least 10 people had been detained.

“Initially, police arrived at the site. When the crowd surrounded the police, armed soldiers arrived at the site and began firing,” he told Myanmar Now. “In the coming days, if we cannot gather to protest, we will do it in our own residential areas.”

Since March 13, around 300 volunteer night guards have watched over these residential areas to protect locals from the dangers posed by the junta’s nighttime raids. These forces use drone cameras to monitor the activities of the night guards from 3:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. every day, Nay Lynn Tun said.

He added that hours before Friday’s crackdown, military and police had also used drone cameras to monitor the gathering of protesters in Aungban.

Over the last week, at least 11 protesters have been arrested in Aungban. Only three-- the protesters who were minors-- were released.

South of Shan State, in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw, two pro-democracy protesters were also shot with live ammunition by the regime’s armed forces on Friday. One, 46-year-old Kyan Aung, was shot in the lower abdomen and died from his injuries. The other wounded protester was a nurse, according to eyewitnesses.

According to a March 18 tally by the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 224 people have been killed across the country by junta’s armed forces since the February 1 coup. Thousands more have been arrested.