Thai government to meet banks over alleged transactions for Myanmar arms

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's government will meet next week with commercial banks and state agencies to investigate transactions allegedly used for weapons purchases by Myanmar's junta, and urge tighter scrutiny, the foreign minister said on Thursday.

Thai bank representatives last week told a parliamentary committee they had followed regulations but lacked capacity to investigate all transactions that could be used for arms purchases, responding to a U.N. expert's report of a surge in money moved via Thai lenders for weapons that were used by the junta against the civilian population.

Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa on Thursday told parliament the foreign ministry's July 24 meeting seeks to ensure banks follow proper due diligence processes and ensure scrutiny of their transactions.

He was responding to the chair of the house committee on national security, who had sought answers from the prime minister on the alleged arms-related fund transfers.

Myanmar is embroiled in a civil war that pits the military, which took back power in 2021 after a decade of democracy, against a loose alliance comprised of ethnic minority armies and a resistance movement loyal to a shadow government.

The military has been accused of involvement in systematic atrocities, which it has dismissed as western disinformation.

Maris said Thailand had no policy to support banking transaction that violate human rights and also did not support economic sanctions on the country.

The report by Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said Thai-registered companies had used local banks to transfer funds for weapons and related materials for Myanmar worth $120 million in the 2023 fiscal year, compared to $60 million the year before.

These transactions, he said, blunt global efforts to isolate the military, which is facing one of its biggest battlefield challenge of its five decades of rule over the former British colony.

The spokesperson of Myanmar's ruling military council could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

The five Thai commercial banks named in the U.N. report, Krung Thai , SCBX, Bangkok Bank, TMB Thanchart Bank, and Kasikorn Bank, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Thailand's central bank has said it was considering working with international and local agencies to come up with an information database on companies linked to Myanmar's junta.

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty)