S Africa court orders suspension, review of arms exports to Myanmar

JOHANNESBURG: A South African court ordered the national arms regulator Friday to suspend and review all permits granted for the sale of weapons to Myanmar as well as other governments suspected of coups or war crimes, legal and rights groups said.

The High Court in Pretoria issued the ruling after an application filed in 2022 by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, both groups said in a statement.

The order sets “aside permits that were granted by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to facilitate arms transfers to Myanmar,” the statement said.

It also obliges the NCACC to suspend, review and possibly even cancel permits for exports to governments in place via a coup or suspected of crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide.

“This order is crucial in creating a more responsible and accountable arms trade regime in South Africa,” the SALC’s Atilla Kisla said in the statement.

South African arms exports to Myanmar have been suspended since 2021, after a February military coup that toppled the democratically-elected government.

From 2017 to 2021, South Africa exported R215.7 million rands’ (11.9 million dollars’) worth of arms to Myanmar, the statement said.