NGO Blood Money accuses India of ‘blood-stained diplomacy’ after Min Aung Hlaing visit

Mizzima

NGO Blood Money has spoken out against India’s recent invitation to the Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to visit India.

The following is their statement issued on 6 June:

Min Aung Hlaing is attempting to gain legitimacy in India that he has never received from the people of Myanmar.

-BLOOD-STAINED DIPLOMACY

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among those who embrace blood-stained business and profit.

India’s invitation to Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the illegitimate Myanmar military junta responsible for atrocity crimes, as a head of state, amounts to support for genocide, war crimes, and military dictatorship. It endorses the violation of democracy. By welcoming Min Aung Hlaing, India is rewarding his repression, killings, and grave crimes, turning diplomacy into blood-stained diplomacy.

-BLOOD-STAINED GAS AND MONEY

Indian state-owned companies ONGC Videsh (OVL) and GAIL (India) Limited directly profit from blood money through their shareholdings in the Shwe Project and the Myanmar-China pipelines, while simultaneously providing the military junta with access to foreign revenue.

In the offshore Shwe Project, OVL holds a 17% stake and GAIL holds an 8.5% stake, giving them a combined ownership of 25.5%. In the South-East Asia Gas Pipeline – Onshore Pipeline (SEAGP), OVL owns 8.35% and GAIL owns 4.17%, for a combined ownership of 12.52%.

-INDIA’S COMPLICITY IN INTERNATIONAL CRIMES

Arming the Myanmar military junta, a criminal group subject to arrest warrants, would also make India responsible for those international crimes.

After Russia and China, India is among the countries supplying arms, raw materials, and military equipment to Myanmar military junta. India supports the junta’s domestic arms production industry and sells military technology, including weapons systems.

The Indian Air Force and Indian state-owned companies continue to provide the illegal military junta with military equipment, infrastructure, and training.

-MIN AUNG HLAING AND MODI

Min Aung Hlaing has violated democratic norms and, since the illegal coup attempt in February 2021, has killed nearly 93,000 people. Following a sham election, he used the junta-controlled parliament to appoint himself as president. He is also a criminal subject to an arrest warrant for the genocide committed against the Rohingya people.

India, led by Prime Minister Modi, has become a mere name calling itself “the world’s largest democracy.” In reality, Modi’s central Indian government is now a state that interferes with federal powers, discriminates against and violently suppresses minorities, and has built extensive ties with notorious fascist and authoritarian groups like Israel.

This time, however, by publicly celebrating Min Aung Hlaing and taking a step further alongside the countries that support the military junta, India has once again violated international crimes.

Stop blood-stained diplomacy.

Stop blood-stained investments.

End all support and complicity in war crimes.

Ref: ACLED, Justice For Myanmar, POSCO International