EXCLUSIVE

NOT FOR MEDIA RELEASE

Democratic Development Committee

BURMA MILITARY WATCH

BMW No 13 - April 2011
The Setup
Senior Gen. Than Shwe and Vice-Senior Gen. Maung Aye have relinquished their posts of C-
in-C and Vice-C-in-C but retained their ranks while the new C-in-C, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing,
was made a General instead of a Senior General. And according to the new Auxiliary Military
Service Law enacted just before the parliament convened, Senior Gen. and Vice-Senior Gen.
would still be superior to the Generals.
Regional commanders have to part off some of their facilities such as office buildings,
houses, limousines, security motorcade vehicles, office vehicles, guest vehicles, furniture, air-
conditioners, computers, Internet, mess, fridge, safe boxes, golf courses, welfare, etc. to new
chief ministers of States and Divisions.
In the past State or Division PDC consisted of regional commander, General Administration
Dept. Chief, State or Division Police Chief, State or Division Immigration Chief and the
Secretary, with the regional commander having a very high degree of power. Now regional
commanders' business and administrative authority is going to erode under the new setup,
giving rise to discontent. Business men are preparing to deal with the emergent authority,
shunning the military commanders on various pretexts. The Police and the staff of General
Admin Dept. have become haughty over their new role in the parliamentary era, behaving
insolently towards the army.
Some years ago, Central Command CO Maj. Gen. Tin Ngwe once issued an order prohibiting
Industry-1 Minister U Aung Thaung from staying at the military guest house inside Fort
Dufferin (Old city of Mandalay). Maj. Gen. Ko Ko has also claimed that ministers were not
the authority.

Air Force
Burma Air Force is planning to replace soon-to-be-expired F-7 and A-5 aircraft with Chinese-
made twin engine aircraft. It has ordered at least twelve new aircraft in 2011 from China
while purchasing two AN-148 aircraft from Russia. Before the latter flew off to Burma one
crashed during the training of Burmese pilots. It is reported that the purchase deal was
imprecise about included gear and conducted not by the Air Force but by the Army which did
not entice Air Force's advice in the purchase of new aircraft. The Russian company has
originally intended to provide training on AN-148s in Burma but the C-in-C (Air Force)
insisted on training in Burma only after an initial training in Russia.
The new War Establishment (WE) plan for Air Force calls for Air Base HQs to be equivalent
to regional commands and squadrons to be equivalent to infantry divisions; to change the
terminology of base and squadron commanders; to constitute China-made UAVs into recon
aircraft squadrons in all Air Bases; to constitute IT-savvy officers and other ranks in the
establishment; to provide independent fund management to squadrons. After suffering for a
long time under the domination of regional commands, Air Force personnel are now pleased
with the new WE plan. However, whether the C-in-C and other Army Generals would
authorize the new setup or not remains to be seen.

Navy
Burma Navy has conducted a naval military exercise in the second week of March in
Tenasserim Naval Base area. The naval exercise around Zardetkyee Island involved frigate
Page 1 of 3
 EXCLUSIVE
NOT FOR MEDIA RELEASE

UMS Aung Zeya and other warships. Burma's first frigate Aung Zeya has been launched
ceremoniously by Vice-Senior General Maung Aye but was soon found out that its design was
highly flawed and risky in high seas, prompting the regime to hastily order three frigates
from China. Aung Zeya was built jointly by Burma and North Korea. North Korea has armed
the frigates with its missiles, and the naval exercise was to test the efficacy of North Korean
missiles and to prepare for war with Thailand. Col. Moe Aung is currently the Tactical Fleet
Commander of those frigates.

Military Buildup
Burmese military's Fiber Optic Cable project has solicited FISCA Enterprise, a domestic
communications manufacture, for supply of communications equipment.
North Korea and Ukraine have competed fiercely to get their surface-to-air missiles
purchased by Burma army, resulting in a corruption investigation on the Air Defense Chief.

The Scheme
The SPDC adopted a new political tactics in 2000 to win over Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to its
side. Thus in 2001, the Military Intelligence (MI) was ordered to undertake secret
negotiations with the Lady and to report to Senior Gen. Than Shwe about the progress. The
negotiations were made top secret but leaked accidentally by then Foreign Minister U Win
Aung (now deceased inside Insein Jail), extremely enraging Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
So MI Chief Gen. Khin Nyunt has to work out damage control by exploiting Mr. Razali
Ismail, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Burma, through whispering method among
diplomats in Rangoon, although Mr. Razali has no role in the talks originally. In this way, he
was utilized to junta's benefit and made to serve as a stepping stone to cast its image to the
world positively.
Beginning from that time, the concept of persuading the Lady to mitigate her stubbornness
rather than unilaterally putting the blame on the regime took hold both inside and outside
the country, with Mr. Razali serving as a medium. Mr. Razali, in return, asked for business
rights related to electronic communications in Rangoon Airport expansion project and in
new Mandalay Airport construction project. Senior Gen. Than Shwe was angered at first for
such an act by a UN Secretary General's Special Envoy but later on granted him a business
option to put electronic chips in Burmese passports. After the assassination attempt on Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi's life in Depayin in 2003 May, Gen. Khin Nyunt allowed Mr. Razali to
meet with her so as to lobby the world.

Mindset
Regarding the drug eradication problem in Burma, Senior Gen. Than Shwe viewed it as
"Dying or suffering from drug abuse concerns only Americans or Thais. It's no concern to us.
So let them die!" He also instructed his ministers to threaten the ASEAN or the ILO with
quitting weapon whenever its meeting agenda included the matter of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
or other undesirable matters. In the event of war with the United States, Than Shwe plan to
imprison all diplomats and staff of the US embassy in Rangoon.
In drafting the 2008 Constitution by the National Convention, Senior Gen. Than Shwe bore
in mind the plan to put an end to civilian politics. He also instructed his subordinates to
recruit child soldiers and train them for 3 to 5 years in order to overcome shortage of regular
recruits. As an act of voodoo magic, he put oil in four large ceramic pots and buried them at
the four corners of Mandalay moat on a Tuesday. This was done as black magic to stifle Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi whose birthday falls on Tuesday.
Beginning in 1996-97, the custom of calling Than Shwe and his family in royal terminology
arose and only two chairs were placed in the living room of his house, to be sat only by Than
Page 2 of 3
 EXCLUSIVE
NOT FOR MEDIA RELEASE

Shwe and his wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing. All guests have to sit on the floor when calling on him
while he and Kyaing Kyaing sat on the only chairs available. Therefore, from that time on,
Vice Senior Gen. Maung Aye and Gen. Khin Nyunt avoided visiting Than Shwe at his home
except in Thadingyut (October) when traditional homage-paying to elders was done.

Glossary
DSA = Defense Services Academy
LID = Light Infantry Division
MOC = Military Operations Command
C-in-C = Commander in Chief
CO = Commanding Officer
UAV = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Drone)
SPDC = State Peace and Development Council
PDC = Peace and Development Council

The news and info in this commentary are collected and compiled by courtesy of:
"Power of Fraternity" project http://www.photayokeking.org/
"The Network"
"National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma" Border Office
Published by
The Burma Fund
777 UN Plaza, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10017
Tel: (212) 3380048
Fax: (212) 3380049
E-mail: burma1fund@igc.org

Page 3 of 3