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Myanmar Coup Piles Pressure on Military's Business Empire

Zsombor Peter

   KUALA LUMPUR - The overthrow of Myanmar's democratically elected
   government by the military last week is drawing international attention
   to the armed forces' vast but murky business empire as pressure builds
   on foreign companies to break ties with it.

   The military declared -- and took charge of -- a one-year state of
   emergency on Feb. 1, hours after rounding up the top leaders of the
   ruling National League for Democracy, including the country's de facto
   leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The generals claim, without evidence, that a
   2020 general election that gave the NLD a second landslide win was
   rigged.

   International rebuke of the coup was swift and by the end of the first
   week Japanese beverage giant Kirin announced it was pulling out of a
   joint venture with a military-owned firm behind the country's most
   popular brew, Myanmar Beer. On Tuesday, RMH Singapore said it would be
   giving up its shares in Myanmar's Virginia Tobacco Company, another
   joint venture co-owned by the military.

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