Dear G7 Governments & Foreign Ministers,

Firstly, we wish that you and your families are safe in your homes. Meanwhile, thousands of Myanmar civilians are fleeing theirs as the military junta increasingly targets us with airstrikes in its failing attempt to assert control over our country. Last month saw the deadliest single airstrike so far, when the junta murdered at least 165 civilians in Pazigyi village, Sagaing, including 27 women and 19 children, sending in attack helicopters to wipe out survivors and first responders. The month that followed has seen the junta murder yet more civilians with impunity.

October 2022 - at least 75 people were killed after the junta dropped multiple bombs on a concert in A Nang Pa Village in Kachin State and then blocked survivors from receiving medical aid.

September 2022 - junta helicopters targeted a school in Sagaing, killing at least 13 people, including seven students.

10 April 2023 - a junta airstrike targeted a school in northern Chin State, killing at least 9 people.

11 April 2023 - a junta airstrike targeting an office of the National Unity Government killed at least 165 people, including pregnant women and infants as young as 6 months.

18 April 2023 - a junta airstrike on Chin village, killed three people including a 4-year old child.

27 April 2023 - the junta bombed the centre of a village, in northern Chin State, killing two, injuring seven, including 2 children.

These are just a fraction of the junta’s atrocities as it continues to ignore the international community’s empty words of condemnation. From February 2021 to January 2023, the junta carried out over 600 airstrikes, and is increasingly targeting civilians, killing more than 210 people in just the last month. This adds to the over 60,000 homes it has burned to the ground since it began its coup attempt. Without the ability to bomb its own civilians, the junta would not be able to hold the limited territory that it controls. Airstrikes on civilians will continue for as long as the junta can access dollars to buy weapons and jet fuel.

For these dollars, the junta is highly reliant on revenues from the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and transactions through the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB). The junta survives on your currencies, on reserves in your banks and those of your allies. They allow it to continue to buy aircraft and weapons from foreign countries such as Russia, China and India

As regional powers bypass ASEAN and its dead-on-arrival 5-point consensus, the G7 continues to make empty statements. Instead we need a response from the G7 that matches just a fraction of the ambition and support of your response to the crisis in Ukraine.

The G7 must do more for the people of Myanmar. How many more children have to die? We urge G7 governments to:

Ensure that the junta does not gain legitimacy as the Government or Myanmar.

Enact and enforce targeted sanctions to cut off all revenue streams to the junta, including by targeting the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB), so that it cannot finance its air strikes against the Myanmar people.

Enact and enforce sanctions that target aviation fuel.

Act now to stop the military junta massacring civilians.