Japan & Myanmar: Kirin’s Myanmar subsidiary admits donating to Myanmar army during Rohingya crisis

The Japanese government has been urged to investigate “immoral” payments made by a subsidiary of one of the country’s most popular breweries that appears to have gone to Myanmar’s military, The Guardian reported on June 15.

Kirin Holdings Company has admitted its offshoot, Myanmar Brewery, made a payment late last year, during the height of the against the Rohingya population in Rakhine state.

The subsidiary made three donations to Myanmar authorities, worth a total of $30,000 (£22,584), between 1 September and 3 October 2017. Kirin Holdings Company confirmed the payments in correspondence with Amnesty International, who published the letters on June 14.

One donation, worth $6,000, intended to help victims of violence in Rakhine, was accepted by the commander in chief of the Myanmar military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Kirin confirmed.

The brewery said the commander had accepted the donations in his capacity as a government representative, but admitted it did not know how the funds were used.

Kirin has banned all new charitable donations in Myanmar and is conducting a human rights assessment of Myanmar Brewery’s suppliers and business partners.

Amnesty International branded the payments unethical and said Kirin’s clientele would be dismayed by the possibility that they were inadvertently supporting the actions of the Myanmar military in Rakhine.

“In additional to acting immorally, Kirin clearly gave no thought to consumers of their products,” said Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s business and human rights programme director.

“Kirin drinkers in the UK will be appalled to think that they could be funding Myanmar’s armed forces, who are responsible for ethnic cleansing.”

In a statement, Kirin Holding Company said: “The company takes human rights and the allegations seriously, and is planning to improve the donation process. While this investigation is ongoing, all corporate donations in Myanmar have been halted.”

Amnesty said the $6,000 donation was made to Min Aung Hlaing, during a televised ceremony in the capital, Naypyidaw, on 1 September 2017. The general posted the news on his own Facebook page, along with details of donations from other groups.

One of the other donations was not a monetary donation, but rice and cooking oil, worth $2,000.

Min Aung Hlaing said the donations would go to “security personnel and state service personnel who risked their lives while shouldering national defence and security duties” in Rakhine state.

Seema Joshi, head of business and human rights at Amnesty International, said: “It beggars belief that any international investor would make donations to Myanmar’s military at a time when those very forces were carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine state.

“Not only is there a risk that these donations actually funded the operations of military units involved in crimes against humanity, but the choice to appear in a donation ceremony with Myanmar’s top military leaders also sends a worrying message that Myanmar Brewery endorsed the military’s actions against the Rohingya population.

“Japan has a responsibility to ensure that its companies do not contribute to human rights abuses, regardless of where they operate. The Japanese authorities should urgently investigate these questionable gifts.”

The donations were made as reports were emerging of the atrocities being committed against Rohingya women, men and children by Myanmar security forces.

In September last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the attack on the Rohingya as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, while additional reporting by journalists and human rights groups went on to identify multiple crimes against humanity being committed by Myanmar’s security forces.

In letters responding to Amnesty International, Kirin Holdings Company said the donations were made with the aim of “supporting human rights”. The company initially said it had given the donations to Min Aung Hlaing as a representative of the Myanmar government, and the donations had been transferred into the government’s bank account to provide humanitarian support. But Kirin later admitted it had been unable to track the use of the funds and said its processes were “not good enough” to assess human rights.

In a letter dated 22 May 2018, Yoshinori Isozaki, the president and CEO of Kirin Holdings Company, said: “We were told that the donations would be sent to victims of the conflict in Rakhine, and we did not sufficiently pursue details of which vehicle would ultimately be responsible for doing so.”

Isozaki said Kirin had sought confirmation from Myanmar Brewery, which is part-owned by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd – a conglomerate owned by former and serving members of the Myanmar military – that verbal inquiries had been made to ensure the “correct transfer of funds had taken place”.

However, he conceded that the process had been inadequate, and said: “This lack of traceability is one of the key issues we plan to address in our revised process, which will also include a closer assessment of the different organisations that may be available to provide effective aid.”

Isozaki said Kirin had launched an assessment of the donation process and intended to introduce a “more rigorous and defined process to assess the nature and appropriateness of the organisations managing the donations, the purpose of the donations and how donated funds will be used and publicised”.

Myanmar Brewery and Kirin have banned new charitable donations until the inquiry is concluded, which should be by the end of the year.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .