YANGON, 27 May 2021: Tenants of a high-end office block in Yangon that the United Nations said was built on military-owned land have moved out or are reviewing their leases.
Prominent first on the move out include McKinsey, Coca-Cola
and Reuters, according to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
The activist group Justice for Myanmar last month called on
commercial tenants of the Sule Square complex of offices and shops in the heart
of Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon to stop indirectly supporting the army.
Photographer: Rory Daniel
“Sule Square has big-name tenants that continue to
lease office space in the building, indirectly supporting the army,”
Can Sanctions Work in Myanmar?
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Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, May 14, 2021.
Credit: AP Photo
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More than 100 days after the February coup in Myanmar, and with no sign of action from a divided U.N. Security Council, international sanctions and boycott campaigns have assumed an ever greater importance in denying any legitimacy to the new military junta.
Western governments responding to global outrage at the mounting bloodshed have expanded sanctions to target the vast labyrinth of the Myanmar military’s economic assets, which are based on two conglomerates: Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).
Myanmar: Global firms leave office block reportedly with military ties - Business & Human Rights Resource Centre business-humanrights.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from business-humanrights.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BBC that it was “assessing the situation in Myanmar, according to internal policies and procedures”.
News agency Reuters said it too was not currently using its Sule Square office and has been reviewing its tenancy.
The £88.5m Sule Square complex is based in the city of Yangon where widespread protests and civilian killings have occurred over the last three months.
Telecoms
Norway’s state-owned telecoms operator Telenor also uses the complex and said it had known the land was military-owned before it moved in, but had picked the location due to safety and a number of other reasons.
Telenor is yet to confirm whether or not it has plans to move out of the building but has had its operations in the region restricted, it said at the beginning of the month, after being shut out of the Myanmar market when the military ordered telecoms operators to shut their networks.
People sit on the ground while waiting for hours to withdraw cash from automated teller machines (ATM) at the CB Bank branch at Myanmar Plaza in Yangon, Myanmar, on May 11. (AP Photo)
A number of tenants of a high-end office block in Myanmar that the United Nations said is built on military-owned land have moved out or are reviewing their leases, including McKinsey, Coca-Cola and Reuters, the companies said.
Activist group Justice for Myanmar last month called on commercial tenants of the Sule Square complex of offices and shops in the heart of Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon to stop indirectly supporting the army.