Arms Easy to Buy for Myanmar Junta

Graphic shows countries selling arms with Myanmar; 1c x 3 1/2 inches; 46.5 mm x 88.9 mm (Merrill Sherman - AP)

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Military-ruled Myanmar is a pariah state to many because of its dismal human rights record, slapped with an arms embargo by the U.S. and European Union. But to some of the world's other top weapons dealers, Myanmar is just another customer.

India, the world's most populous democracy, and North Korea, Asia's most repressive dictatorship, are both suppliers to Myanmar's military, and neither has signaled it would stop business after the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protests last month.

As is the case with the biggest suppliers to Myanmar _ Russia, China and Ukraine _ such arms sales may be widely criticized for helping the regime stay in power, but they don't clearly violate any laws, treaties or international agreements.

"Together these countries can supply anything Burma could possibly want, and they have more or less done so in the last 15 years," said Siemon Wezeman, a researcher for the Arms Transfers Project of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.

Most known arms transfers to Myanmar are legal, and some are even reported to the United Nations. But other transactions are murkier, as countries more sensitive to international opinion apparently try to mask their activities. Analysts say these include India, as well as Israel and Singapore.

The only restrictions on selling military equipment to Myanmar, also known as Burma, are self-imposed. The tightest embargoes are maintained by the United States and the European Union, while several other nations, such as South Korea, have less sweeping or informal sanctions.

The U.S. and European restrictions ban sales and re-sales of virtually all military-related equipment to Myanmar. But it is difficult to stop third parties from selling used equipment and licensed technology.

As a result, the junta has become the eager client of countries that "have garnered reputations for being willing to supply almost any regime," said Dr. Paul Holtom, another SIPRI researcher.

Myanmar's army of more than 400,000 is the second-largest in Southeast Asia after Vietnam's, and bigger on a per capita basis. Because it is one of Asia's poorest countries, its military has until recently operated without much of the sophisticated weaponry of its neighbors, but has made huge modernization efforts since 1988.

The reasons for selling to Myanmar are many _ and first among them is profit.

By far the largest amount of Myanmar's arms have been imported from China, according to SIPRI's register of transfers of major conventional weapons. Its database, which represents conservative estimates, shows Myanmar importing $1.69 billion in military goods from China between 1988 _ when the current junta took power after violently crushing a pro-democracy uprising _ and 2006.

Goods bought from China over the years have included armored personnel carriers, tanks, fighter aircraft, radar systems, surface-to-air missiles and short-range air-to-air missile systems.