An interview with Ko Saw L Muh from the Blood Money Campaign.
The Blood Money Campaign is collecting signatures from 100,000 people to demand three points, including asking Singapore which is the third largest supplier of arms, to stop selling arms to the army and impose financial sanctions.
The Than Lwin Times interviewed Ko Saw L Muh from the Blood Money Campaign about the collection of signatures to sanction the military council, the Singaporean government’s response and the blood money campaign.
Q: Your group is working to collect 100,000 signatures to ask the Singaporean government which is the third largest arm supplier to the army. To what extent is there public participation?
A: This is the third campaign which calls on the Singaporean government to block the transfer of arms to the army and the use of the financial system by the terrorist army. It has been two months in a row. In the early days of these two months, civil society organizations, the revolutionary forces worked together to organize an educational campaign for the Singaporean government. We haven’t received any response from it yet. To that end, we are once again organizing a signature campaign where the public can participate. Our target is to collect about 100,000 signatures earlier. Until now, we have received around 13,000 signatures. Now we will try our best to receive 100,000 signatures and to hit our target. We will send the open letter even if we can’t collect all the signatures. Next month will be 1000th day of the coup. At that time, we will send an open letter carrying public signatures to the Singaporean government.
Q: What are the main demands to the Singaporean government? Can you elaborate on your demands?
A: The first demand is that the Singaporean government is urged to publicize its investigation and actions against Singapore-based arm companies. In the report released by the United Nations, in a meeting with the responsible persons in Singapore, what did the Singaporean government say? They said that they would investigate the export and sale of arms to Myanmar. That’s what the Singapore government said. You can find it in the news. They said so. However, they don’t do anything effectively. They must be doing it for real.
As a push, we called on Singapore to transparently investigate Singapore-based arm companies which sell arms to the Myanmar terrorist Fascist army, the companies involved in arm sale, broker companies and transportation companies.
The second demand is the Singaporean government is urged to block any arm sales to the Myanmar military for whatever reason.
The third demand is Singapore is a financial hub for the terrorist army. It is also a real financial hub for payments for jet fuel and the purchase of weapons and the army’s remittance to and withdrawal from other countries. Another reason is that Myanmar’s foreign reserves of nearly 4.6 billion USD have been allowed to be used by the military. Those reserves are kept in the banks of Singapore. Since the military controlled Myanmar, Myanmar is allowed to use this money by the Singaporean government.
The military is also allowed to use Singapore’s financial systems. Our third demand is that Singapore should not allow the terrorist army to use its financial system.
Q: What has changed after nearly two hundred domestic and foreign civil society organizations (CSOs) sent an open letter to the Singaporean government to stop the transfer and sale of arms and dual-use goods and technologies, by Singapore-based companies to the Myanmar military?
A: The Singaporean government did not respond to our open letter. We don’t expect too much. We don’t expect the Singaporean government will respond immediately. I don’t know whether it is a coincidence. Shortly after the open letter was sent, the news emerged that two Singaporeans were fined for importing the sonar systems to the Myanmar military. Is this a coincidence? Did Singapore do it because of our demand and campaign? Is it just a for-show? Singapore took action against two citizens.
Q: What do you plan to do in the future in order to root out the military dictatorship?
A: We have a target. Currently, we target the Singaporean government. As I said before, a total of 200 CSOs and revolutionary forces demanded three points—to call on Singapore to investigate the supply of arms to Myanmar, to completely stop exporting arms to Myanmar and not to allow the army to use the financial system. We will try again to create a situation where people can participate, and we will continue to put pressure on the Singaporean government.
According to the decision, we are now going to send the people’s signatures to the Singaporean government on the 1,000th day of the coup to put pressure on it. We are collecting signatures for a campaign targeting the Singaporean government. This is for this campaign. Among our targets are the Thai government. There are also groups like the PTT group. The groups which provide the most financial support to the army. We will continue to organize the campaign which targets the Thai government. The public will be persuaded to participate in the campaign.
In addition, we are also planning to organize a campaign urging the US government to sanction Myanmar’s entire oil and natural gas system. We alone can’t organize the campaigns. This campaign recognizes the public’s participation. We will continue to organize such campaigns. We are targeting the Singaporean government for the signature campaign.
Q: How effective a global campaign to cut the blood money supply to the junta has been?
A: After working as a global movement, what is PTT? How is the PTT involved? Myanmar citizens living in Myanmar come to know how important the PTT is. The second point is the campaign to boycott PTT’s products has achieved success to a certain degree. There are no more PTT engine oil and subsidiary coffee shops in Myanmar. Although there is no list as to whether or not it is still on strike, we noticed that our campaign was effective. The third point is if you show any difference in the international community, some shares are withdrawn from the PTT company, losing millions of dollars. It has a significant impact on the company. The fourth point is that after the withdrawal of shares, the PTT Oil and Retail Business (PTTOR) plans to open more than 100 fuel filling stations in Myanmar in cooperation with the KBZ group. Now this project is cancelled. This is a continuation of the campaign to completely pressure the PTT. The last one is for Yangon. I don’t know if it is in Thilawa. There is a power plant project. The PTT’s plan to implement that project in cooperation with the KBZ is suspended. It stopped as a subsidiary named the PPOR. This is what we mean by the positive results of the global movement.
Sent by Than Lwin Times