Justice For Myanmar (JFM) urged on 21 October that international actions to address cyber-scam operations should widely target the military junta and its allied militias involved in these criminal networks.
The JFM statement continues below.
On Sunday, the Myanmar military junta staged a showcase raid on the notorious and expansive cyber scam compound of KK Park, seizing a mere 30 Starlink units and finding 2,198 workers, estimated to be a fraction of the total people working or trapped at the site. This was timed ahead of the ASEAN Summit and appears to be an attempt to distract from the key role the junta and their Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) militia continue to play in transnational crime and human trafficking.
The Myanmar military runs a web of criminal businesses, and nurtures and harbours the criminal
enterprises of the Karen BGF, which is under Myanmar military command. Together, they function as a transnational organised crime network that generate funds for their ongoing campaign of international crimes, including through KK Park. They profit from transnational crime through the control of land, interests in real estate developments where cyber scams take place, tax collection, the provision of security, smuggling, human trafficking and the sale of utilities.
US sanctions against the Karen BGF/Karen National Army earlier this year stated that troops from the militia were guarding KK Park. This followed a 2024 Deutsche Welle investigation that also found that Karen BGF troops were providing security at KK Park. European Union sanctions applied last year against Karen BGF lieutenant colonel Mote Thone and Karen BGF major Saw Tin Win identified both as being involved with and benefiting from KK Park.
The direct involvement of the Karen BGF and their leaders in transnational crime, under Myanmar military oversight, extends far beyond KK Park. For instance, the leader Chit Thu and his children collectively own nine Karen BGF companies. Among them are two companies invested in cyber scam compounds: Myanmar Apollo International Investment Company Limited (Apollo Park) and Yulong Bay Resort Tourism Development Company Limited (Yulong Bay Park).
International action to address cyber scams must therefore target the Myanmar military and its militias broadly.
The military is a terrorist organisation under Myanmar law and as defined in international law. It is also a root cause of regional instability as the junta is responsible for mass forced displacement of Myanmar people within Myanmar and across the region and has caused a profound economic crisis that has spilled over to neighbouring countries.
Since the military’s illegal coup attempt, ASEAN has lent false legitimacy to the junta and provided intelligence and training to the Myanmar military and junta police, while it commits international and transnational crimes with total impunity.
ASEAN’s false legitimisation of the junta has not only emboldened this criminal cartel but undermined the international response to transnational crime by providing it with knowledge that can help it evade international law enforcement.
At the upcoming ASEAN Summit, governments must take a clear stand to reject the junta and the sham election it is staging in an attempt to legitimise itself.
Governments must cut the junta’s access to funds, arms and aviation fuel, and ensure international accountability for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as civil society has demanded.
Only through supporting the Myanmar people’s struggle for federal democracy and to dismantle the military can ASEAN and the international community successfully address the cybercrime crisis, and the Myanmar crisis, root and all.
