Defectors outline Burma’s nuclear ambitions

(DVB)–Burma and North Korea may be collaborating on the development of a nuclear reactor in northern Burma, according to experts who carried out extensive interviews with two Burmese defectors.

One of the two defectors, who are both now based in Thailand, is a former army officer, while the other was an executive at Htoo Trading, a company with close ties to the military junta.

During interviews carried out over the course of two years with Phil Thornton, a Thailand-based journalist, and Desmond Ball of the Australian National University, the two men detailed North Korea’s assistance in helping Burma acquire a nuclear weapon.

The report, published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 1 August, said that the junta was building a nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant in northern Burma, much of it hidden in a network of tunnels dug into a mountain at Nuang Laing.

The report will add weight to a body of evidence that has emerged over the past two months that points to North Korea’s assistance in helping Burma develop a nuclear weapon.

In June DVB published a report on Burma’s secret network of tunnels, dug with North Korea’s assistance, with leaked intelligence documents saying the tunnels could accommodate heavy weaponry.

And in June a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, that was being tracked by the US navy on suspicion that it was carrying arms in violation of a UN resolution on North Korea, appeared to be headed towards Burma before turning around.

At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional forum last month, US Secreatry of State Hillary Clinton spoke of concern over Burma’s nuclear ambitions.

Htay Aung, a Burmese military analyst at the Network for Democracy and Development, said that Burma’s acquisition of nuclear technology would add a new dynamic to Asia’s regional security threat.

“If the junta has nuclear arms then there will be problem for everyone, including countries like China and India who have always been saying Burma is not a regional threat,” he said.

“We still can’t tell if countries like North Korea and Iran, those who already are in a hold of nuclear arms, are not going to sell their weapons to Burma.

“There is a chance that they will consider Burma, who is also facing against the US just like them, as a friend and sell nuclear weapons to the junta,” he said.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

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Three Burmese Defectors Missing After Arrest in Bangladesh

Dhaka (Narinjara): Three Burmese soldiers that defected from the army have been missing since they were arrested by Bangladesh Rifles in the border area of southern Chittagong Hill Tract on 20 February, 2009, said a relative of one.

The three were identified as Maung Maung Than, Soe Thwe, and Than Htay Haing, from Light Infantry Battalion 538 based in Rathidaung, 20 miles north of Sittwe.

The relative said that he came to Bangladesh last week to inquire about them but received information that they were sent back to Burma in April 2009 by Bangladesh authorities along with other Burmese prisoners.

The soldiers were arrested by Bangladesh Rifles at Headman Maung Shwe Sein's village in southern Bandarban in February while they were looking for shelter in the area.

According to a local source, the three defected from the Burmese army after some of their ammunition magazines went missing during a trip with their column to inspect the border pillars.

The Burmese army severely punishes soldiers that lose ammunition or military equipment, so the three soldiers fled from their column to Bangladesh out of fear of punishment.

After their arrest, the Bangladesh authorities reportedly brought them to Dhaka for interrogation.

A Burmese refugee staying in Cox's Bazar said the three soldiers were reportedly handed over to Burma by Bangladesh authorities at the Maungdaw border point along with other Burmese prisoners during an arranged repatriation in April 2009.

He added that the Burmese military authority has never disclosed information in such cases. The military may have sentenced them to long prison terms or executed them without providing any information to their relatives.

The three soldiers are Arakanese nationals from Shwe Lon Din Village in Rathidaung Township.

The relative said, "We heard they were fleeing to Bangladesh from the Burmese army. Because of that I came to the border town of Teknaf to inquire about their situation but now they are not in Bangladesh."

The Burmese army has no procedure for relatives to inquire about soldiers if they defect from the Burmese army.

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Residents scared, rumors abound in wake of impending conflict

IMNA, Rai Maraoh

As news has spread of the advancing Burmese army, fear and rumors run rife amongst area civilians and traders, as a major clash with the largest Karen resistance group looms.

The most recent round of fighting between the Burmese State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) forces and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) took place around 8 p.m. on July 8th on a temporary camp near Tae Tone Lone. The camp is 12 kilometers outside Three Pagoda Pass, between Makate and Three Pagoda Pass (TPP).

After the recent fall of the Karen National Union’s (KNU) KNLA base, brigade 7, according to KNU sources, the SPDC and DKBA forces are advancing towards brigade 6 stronghold. Many residents and traders have reacted with fear to the increasing tension and militarization in the region, which has caused the spread of rumors among area residents, such as a rumor that close to 1,000 SPDC troops are advancing into the area. Concerns about safety in the face of the increasing military presence has in particular paralyzed trade along the Zami river, as traders are hesitant to approach the numerous checkpoints that along the river held by assorted armed groups, and the repercussions of being caught in the midst of the ongoing conflict.

“After the DKBA and the KNU were fighting in Tae Tone Lone camp, the boat owners couldn’t bring themselves to run their boats, so we also can’t trade,” said a trader from Three Pagoda Pass. “We’re afraid of the conflict between the DKBA and KNU, that’s why we’ve now stopped trading.”

On July 8th the SPDC combined forces with the DKBA to fight the KNLA at a brigade 6 administered checkpoint in the area near Tae Tone Lone camp, while on July 11th there were reports of DKBA forces opening fire on KNLA troops.

“Now we hear about the Burmese troops marching to (TPP) area, but they haven’t arrive yet,” said a source close to the Burmese authorites. “They will arrest residents to use as forced porters.”

On July 11th a rumor spread that SPDC forces had arrested 15-30 residents of Toung Wine area, outside of TPP, and needed about 800 more porters to successfully carry out their coming assault of the brigade no 6 base.

After the dual bomb blast in Three Pagoda Pass and the ongoing conflict between DKBA and KNU, SPDC troops from IB No. 32 based in TPP, now enforce a 10 pm curfew on the crossing into Makate forest. After 10 pm soldiers from IB No. 32 will not allow people to go outside town, according to a resident from Three Pagoda Pass.

“During in this day [Monday the 13th] about 7 soldiers from IB No. 32 deserted to join the KNLA, including one captain,” said a source in TPP. “Some people said that this is an unusual situation, and that it’s a Burmese army strategy to trick and blind side the KNU.”

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Two DKBA soldiers desert

HURFOM (Rehmonnya): Many young people have to flee their homes in Karen State, due to recruitment for Border Guard Forces (BGF) and other government-run militias, and increased militarization.

According to two soldiers who deserted from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), “Some of the DKBA higher-ranking Generals agreed with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to be a BGF; therefore, the DKBA tries to recruit for the BGF…many young people have been fleeing from their home to avoid the recruitment.”

The two former-DKBA soldiers, three-year veterans who arrived at the Thai-Burma border, told HURFOM of the concomitant increase in troops: “the DKBA has been increasing their troops in the area…now, the DKBA has 6,000 troops. They [DKBA] will try to get another more than 3000 troops to develop their army. They target the young people between 20 and 30 (years-of-age) and recruit them in the army.

“In early May 2009, the [DKBA] Chief of staff Oo Kyaw Than and Junior Chief of staff Htun Hlaing have been commanding their troops to join the [Burmese] army and recruiting new soldiers…a hundred young people have been recruited by the DKBA army in our area.”

Because the DKBA Battalions force young people to join, many have fled, including Kha Lae Dta Gone Daing village, Kyainnseikyi Township (where the DKBA’s Battalion no. 906 is located) and Thee Khu Thaw village (where the DKBA’s Battalion no. 901 is located).

The two ex-DKBA members, 25- and 28-years-old, said that, “many Karen young people flee to the Thai – Burma border. Some young people who come from wealthy families, they just escape to Rangoon (Yangon) and find jobs there.”

HURFOM confirmed the report that the DKBA’s Colonel Saw Chit Thu commanded his army to recruit about 3,000 to implement their new brigade and insisted on recruiting as many young people as possible in Meh Naw Hta and Meh K’Taw, Karen State.

Said one of the deserters, 25, “Because of the fighting between two Karen groups [KNU and DKBA], Karen young people don’t want to join the army. They worried killing each other. As a result, they avoid joining the army with the DKBA.

“Because of the desire to be private troops for the SPDC, they followed whatever the SPDC commanded of them. We are like their slaves; we cannot do for our people anymore. Now, the SPDC forces us to fight and kill each other. This situation is awful in our Karen history. We don’t want to accept [this]; therefore, we left the DKBA army.”

HURFOM received minutes from a May 12th DKBA meeting. In the meeting, it was announced that the DKBA had only 6,000 soldiers and needed more than 3,000 to extend their troops, focusing on young men to be mercenaries. For those extant DKBA soldiers over 50-years-old, the meeting addressed pensions they would receive from the SPDC.

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Defector spills the beans on the 1998 massacre - Aung Lin Htut

Defect or Opens Up 7 Jun 08

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Burma: Than Shwe 'ordered troops to execute villagers'

June 7, 2008
Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor
Times Online

The leader of the Burmese junta, Than Shwe, personally ordered the murder of scores of unarmed villagers and Thai fishermen, according to a senior diplomat and military intelligence officer who defected to America.

Aung Lin Htut, formerly the deputy chief of mission at the Burmese Embassy in Washington, described to a radio station how 81 people, including women and children, were shot and buried on an isolated island after straying into a remote military zone in the southeast of the country in 1998.

After one general hesitated to kill the civilians, fearing that the commander who had given the order was drunk, he was informed that it came from “Aba Gyi” or “Great Father” – the term used to refer to Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the junta.

A few days later troops from the same military base captured a Thai fishing boat that had strayed close to Christie Island in the Mergui Archipelago. The 22 fishermen on board were also shot and buried on the island. “I was a witness to the two incidents in which a total of about 81 people were killed,” Mr Aung Lin Htut, formerly a major in military intelligence, told the Burmese language service of Voice of America. “All of them were unarmed civilians.” In 46 years of military rule in Burma, there have been numerous reports of grave human rights violations but few have been attested by so well placed a source as Mr Aung Lin Htut. They come at a time when General Than Shwe and his regime are coming under scrutiny, after their refusal to allow a full scale relief operation for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The French Government has said that it comes close to being a “crime against humanity”, and last week Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, called it “criminal neglect”. If a tribunal like the ones established for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia is ever created for Burma, then Mr Aung Lin Htut will doubtless be called to give evidence.

He sought asylum in the US in 2005, along with six members of his family, after a purge against the country’s prime minister and intelligence chief of the time by General Than Shwe destroyed the careers of a generation of intelligence officers. Given the control of information in Burma, his account is impossible to verify. But it has credibility because it is the first time since his defection that Mr Aung Lin Htut has made any public comment on his former masters.

In May 1998 he was stationed on Zadetkyi island, a frontline base close to Burma’s maritime border with Thailand. The commander of the base was Colonel Zaw Min, who is now Minister for Electric Power and general secretary of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the junta’s grassroots organisation.

A unit led by the colonel landed on Christie Island and found 59 people living there to gather wood and bamboo, in violation of Burmese law. The order came back from headquarters that they were to be “eliminated”.

Myint Swe, an air force general, said that he was a religious person, and that the matter should be handled delicately. He said that he was very concerned by the timing of the elimination order – just after lunch, a time when General Maung Aye, now the number two in the junta, was usually drunk.

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