Justice For Myanmar (abbreviated JFM) is a covert group of activists campaigning for

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

accountability Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the publ ...

for the people of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. Justice for Myanmar's public website launched on 28 April 2020. Since its launch, the group has published a number of high-profile exposés related to the business dealings of high-ranking military and government officials in the country, in a campaign to publicly pressure the dismantling of the

Burmese military Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

's business practices and systemic corruption. In August 2020, the Burmese government blocked the group's website, under Section 77 of Myanmar's telecommunications law, which has been used by the government as a censorship tool to stifle dissent and public scrutiny. On 29 August 2020,

Telenor Myanmar Telenor Myanmar ( Burmese: တယ်လီနော မြန်မာ) was a telecommunications brand in Myanmar (Burma) between 2014 and 2022. It was established as a subsidiary of the Norwegian Telenor Group, and was sold off to the Lebanese ...

issued a statement confirming that it had complied with the government directive, but noted its position on

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and the right of access to information. On 3 September 2020, the group launched a mirror site to circumvent the censorship. The censorship was condemned by a joint statement by

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

, Sherpa, and Info Birmanie. The censorship of JFM was cited as an example in the escalation of technical censorship in Myanmar's 2020 Freedom on the Net report, published by

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

Significant exposes

In May 2020, JFM exposed a lucrative lease agreement between the military and a Japanese-led development consortium that is building the $330 million Y Complex on the former site of Jubilee Hall in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. In September 2020, Justice for Myanmar, in collaboration with

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, published an expose demonstrating how revenue from the military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, including in joint ventures with international firms like Kirin Brewery, are used to fund military operations, and reward and punish soldiers with shareholder dividends. JFM also exposed dividend payments received by key shareholders, including

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Coun ...

, Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief, who received a dividend payment of $250,000 during the 2010-11 fiscal year. In October 2020, JFM published an investigation into the military's proxy political party, the

Union Solidarity and Development Party The Union Solidarity and Development Party ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုကြံ့ခိုင်ရေးနှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးပါတီ; abbr. USDP) is a political party in Myanmar, registered on ...

for acquiring and earning revenue from state assets and stoking

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, in potential contravention of Myanmar's Political Parties Registration Law. In December 2020, JFM published leaked documents highlighting controversial arms purchases by the Burmese military that could run afoul of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

sanctions and arms embargoes. Later that month, it released a major investigation detailing a “web of cronyism and corruption” surrounding the national telecommunications carrier

Mytel Mytel is a major telecommunications company in Myanmar (Burma), as one of four national carriers. Mytel is operated as a joint venture between the Burmese military and Viettel, which is owned by Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence. Mytel has be ...

, a joint venture between the Burmese military Vietnam's

Ministry of National Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(which owns

Viettel The Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (), less formally recognized as Viettel Group () or simply Viettel, is a Vietnamese multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. Viettel is the largest telecommuni ...

). The report also noted the Burmese military's ability to harvest personal data from Mytel users for surveillance purposes.

References

External links

* * * * {{twitter, justicemyanmar Censorship in Myanmar Corruption in Myanmar Organisations based in Myanmar Organizations established in 2020

Significant exposes

See also

References

External links