A United Nations independent fact-finding mission on Myanmar has called for imposition of arms embargo against Naypyidaw in order to stop its military to carry out further atrocities.

It also said the UN Security Council and member states should immediately impose targeted sanctions against companies run by the military, known as the Tatmadaw. Consumers, investors and firms at home and abroad are encouraged to engage with businesses unaffiliated with the military.

According to the 111-page report of the mission, released on Monday in Geneva, cited at least 14 foreign firms from seven nations that have supplied fighter jets, armoured combat vehicles, warships, missiles and missile launchers to Myanmar since 2016.

During this period, the military carried out extensive and systematic human rights violations against civilians in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states, including the forced deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Rohingyas to Bangladesh.

“The implementation of the recommendations in this report will erode the economic base of the military, undercut its obstruction of the reform process, impair its ability to carry out military operations without oversight and thus reduce violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and serve as a form of accountability in the short-term,” said Mission Chair Marzuki Darusman.

The investigative report follows recommendations the mission’s experts made last year after documenting how Myanmar’s armed forces brutally violated the human rights of ethnic groups nationwide.

The 2018 report focused heavily on “clearance operations” against the Rohingyas in Rakhine that began on August 25, 2017, when security forces killed thousands of Rohingya civilians, raped and sexually abused women and girls, and burned their villages to the ground.

The mission will present its final report to the UN Human Rights Council next month.