Justice for Myanmar (JFM) has called on Canada, the European Union, UK and United States to impose sanctions on the ‘State Administration and Peace Commission,’ which was recently restructured by the terrorist military. The illegal Myanmar military junta has changed the name of its administrative, legislative and judicial body from the ‘State Administration Council’ to the ‘State Administration and Peace Commission,’ creating a concerning loophole that could help the military regime evade international sanctions. The military group made this change not only as part of their illegal coup attempt but also before their planned sham election.
The current Commission’s Chairman and Vice Chairman are war criminals Min Aung Hlaing and Soe Win, who are already under sanctions from Canada, EU, UK, US and Australia. JFM points out that all 10 commission members are sanctioned in at least one jurisdiction. Since the July 31 name change to the Commission, the military group has intensified its violent campaign against Myanmar’s people with indiscriminate airstrikes, bombings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and destruction of entire communities. On August 17 alone, the military regime’s airstrike in the Mawchi region killed at least 32 civilians in a mass killing.
The military group has hired the US-based public relations firm DCI Group in an attempt to whitewash its international image, signing a one-year contract worth $3 million to rebuild relations with the US government. DCI has reportedly committed to helping the military regime by continuing to exploit Myanmar’s public natural resources as funding for the group’s violent activities. JFM notes that this timing appears coordinated – while the contract with DCI Group was signed on July 4 after the Council’s dissolution and Commission’s formation, it only took effect after July 31 when the Council was abolished, appearing to exploit sanctions loopholes. The military group previously hired Canadian PR consultant Ari Ben-Menashe of Dickens & Madson in 2021 to lobby the US government, but that contract was terminated in July shortly after US sanctions were imposed, as the sanctions prohibited payments.
