LOCATION: Myanmar
RELATIONSHIP: A Sumitomo Corporation subsidiary in Myanmar jointly operates the state-owned telecommunications company Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications. Sumitomo is included on Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List.

IMPACT ON COMMUNITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Myanmar’s military has a well-documented history of human rights violations, including crimes against humanity. Beginning in 2016, Myanmar’s military launched a campaign of massacres and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in western Myanmar, which officials from the UN and 57 countries have labeled a genocide. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar called on businesses and investors to cut ties with the military. In 2021, the military violently took control of the country, imprisoning much of the civilian leadership. In response to the ensuing protests and marches calling for democracy, the military and its allies have killed more than 4,000 civilians.

Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) collaborates with the military’s domestic surveillance program , which has been used to surveil activists and journalists before their arbitrary arrests and eventual murder. According to Justice for Myanmar, Sumitomo Corporation is complicit in surveillance and human rights violations through this venture. 

RESOURCES

Information on this project was submitted by Justice for Myanmar and Burma Campaign UK and last updated on February 13th, 2025.