Myanmar › Myanmar Says Halted Nuclear Research Program: Verification Critical. By David Albright and Andrea Stricker June 3, 2011 In an important reversal, Myanmar’s vice president, Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo, told a visiting U.S. delegation led by Senator John McCain on June 2 that the country “has halted [its nuclear research] programme as [the] international community may misunderstand Myanmar over the issue.” The vice president said, “Myanmar made arrangements for nuclear research with the assistance of Russia in order that Myanmar will not lag behind other countries in that field and to improve its education and health sectors…,” he continued, “Myanmar is [in] no position to take account of nuclear weapons and does not have enough economic strength to do so.”
This statement was followed by the announcement that Myanmar has halted its nuclear research due to the high potential for international confusion. 2004-01-20 - RUMORS OF CONSTRUCTION OF A NUCLEAR REACTOR NEAR MINBU - released 2010-12-09. 2008-09-23 - BURMESE CIVILIAN OFFERS TO SELL PURPORTED URANIUM 238 TO U.S. EMBASSY RANGOON, BURMA. Viewing cable 08RANGOON749, BURMESE CIVILIAN OFFERS TO SELL PURPORTED URANIUM Understanding cables Every cable message consists of three parts: The top box shows each cables unique reference number, when and by whom it originally was sent, and what its initial classification was.
The middle box contains the header information that is associated with the cable. It includes information about the receiver(s) as well as a general subject. 2009-11-10 - ANOTHER CONVERSATION ABOUT BURMA-DPRK NUCLEAR ISSUE. Viewing cable 09RANGOON732, BURMA: ANOTHER CONVERSATION ABOUT BURMA-DPRK Understanding cables Every cable message consists of three parts: The top box shows each cables unique reference number, when and by whom it originally was sent, and what its initial classification was.The middle box contains the header information that is associated with the cable.
It includes information about the receiver(s) as well as a general subject.The bottom box presents the body of the cable. The opening can contain a more specific subject, references to other cables (browse by origin to find them) or additional comment. This is followed by the main contents of the cable: a summary, a collection of specific topics and a comment section. To understand the justification used for the classification of each cable, please use this WikiSource article as reference. Discussing cables If you find meaningful or important information in a cable, please link directly to its unique reference number. Big Odd Myanmar Box. Over the past couple of days, I’ve been emailing with a couple of colleagues about this very odd building in Myanmar (nee Burma).
Staring at that big box was the main reason I tweeted that “This Burma-NORK nuclear link has me worried.” Allen Thomson, Bruno Tertrais and some folks at VERTIC all found it too — working from the recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald and an older story originally published by an opposition group. We’d been quietly discussing what the thing might be. Now It Can Be Told: Inside BOB. (posted at 2:01 GMT 4 June 2010) One of the great things about writing for the Wonk is that people tell you things, including what’s inside what has been called here the “Big Odd Box” in Burma.
Last January, I was invited to join a group of experts in Oslo, Norway, to review a ton of electronic documents smuggled out of Burma to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). (There is a great documentary about the DVB that was nominated for an Oscar in 2010. You can watch it on YouTube here.) Now that DVB has released its latest documentary, I can tell about my part and the information I learned about Burma’s nascent missile development program. These documents contain a large number of images taken by elements of the Burmese military as they constructed the two BOBs and then installed an amazingly sophisticated numerically controlled machine shop.
Webb cancels Burma trip over nuclear fears. US senator Jim Webb has postponed his visit to Burma, scheduled for today, because of reports that Burma is developing a nuclear programme in conjunction with North Korea. Webb had been due to fly to Naypyidaw this evening to meet with the Burmese prime minister, before heading to Rangoon to meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A statement penned by Webb and released by his office today cites news reports that Burma is in the process of building nuclear weaponry. “From the initial accounts, a defecting officer from the Burmese military claims direct knowledge of such plans, and reportedly has furnished documents to corroborate his claims,” said the statement. “It is unclear whether these allegations have substantive merit. “Until there is further clarification on these matters, I believe it would be unwise and potentially counterproductive for me to visit Burma.”
Myanmar 'nuclear plans' exposed - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera Engl. An investigation by an anti-government Myanmar broadcaster has found evidence that it says shows the country's military regime has begun a programme to develop nuclear weapons.
Journalists from the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) have been gathering information about secret military projects in Myanmar for years. But they say recent revelations from a former army officer show that the military government is pushing ahead with ambitions to become a nuclear power. The allegations are contained in a special documentary produced by the DVB being aired by Al Jazeera. On Thursday evening, shortly before the film was due to be broadcast, US Senator Jim Webb announced he was postponing his scheduled trip to Myanmar in response to allegations in the documentary. Burma is the former name of Myanmar.
Webb had been due to fly to Myanmar late on Thursday for talks with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and senior officials in the country's reclusive military junta. Myanmar's nuclear bombshell, Bertil Lintner. Myanmar's nuclear bombshell By Bertil Lintner BANGKOK - Myanmar's ruling generals have started a secret program to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them in a high-stakes bid to deter perceived hostile foreign powers, according to an investigative report by the Democratic Voice of Burma that will be aired later on Friday by television news network al-Jazeera.
Asia Times Online contributor Bertil Lintner was involved in reviewing materials during extensive authentication processes conducted by international arms experts and others during the report's five-year production. In the strategic footsteps of North Korea, Myanmar's leaders are also building a complex network of tunnels, bunkers and other underground installations where they and their military hardware would be hidden against any external aerial attack, including presumably from the United States. The nuclear bid will also put the already diplomatically isolated country on a collision course with the US. Myanmar Nukes Would Destabilize Region: U.S. Published: 10 Jun 2010 18:06 WASHINGTON - Myanmar risks destabilizing Southeast Asia through its pursuit of weapons, although it is not yet clear whether the military regime is developing a nuclear program, a U.S. official said June 10.
A senior army defector, in a recent documentary broadcast on Al Jazeera television, said the junta has been seeking nuclear weapons and developing a secret network of underground tunnels with help from North Korea. Scot Marciel, the State Department official in charge of Southeast Asia, said that the United States was still assessing the allegations about Myanmar - also known as Burma. Al Jazeera airs incorrect news report saying M. NAY PYI TAW, 11 June - Al Jazeera television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar, and a branch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, aired a news report this month saying that Myanmar in cooperation with Democratic People's Republic of Korea was trying to produce nuclear weapons.
It broadcast the news report at 12.30 pm on 4 June, 1.30 am and 9.30 am on 6 June, 8.30 pm on 7 June, at noon on 8 June and 1.30 am and 9 am on 10 June. In connection with the news report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Union of Myanmar issued a Press Statement today. The Press Statement said, during these days, some international media are accusing Myanmar of cooperating with DPRK in trying to implement its nuclear programme with the aim of possessing nuclear weapons.
Actually, they are just groundless accusations made with the intention of launching political attacks on Myanmar. Military defectors reject accusations. Two men who leaked information on Burma’s nuclear programme and were subsequently attacked by Burmese state media as “slanderous” frauds have defended their actions.
Sai Thein Win and Aung Lin Htut, two former majors in the Burmese army who featured prominently in DVB’s exposé of Burma’s nuclear weapons programme, were last week slammed as mere “deserters and fugitives” by the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Sai Thein Win had worked in a factory that built prototypes for nuclear missiles, and provided DVB with the bulk of information about the nuclear programme for the documentary, Burma’s Nuclear Ambitions. Aung Lin Htut, who worked in the government’s Military Intelligence Service during the Khin Nyunt era and was Burma’s ambassador to the US, spoke at length of the regime’s military projects. Sai Thein Win meanwhile had apparently lied about his position as major in the army.
Does Burma have a WMD program? Andrew Selth is Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute. Reports produced by activist organisations always need to be treated with caution, particularly if they rely heavily on a single source. However, a documentary film (preview above) and written report just released by the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) appear to offer a rare insight into Burma's secret nuclear ambitions. Over the past 10 years, this issue has attracted some sensational claims. For example, activist websites have stated that, with North Korean help, the Naypyidaw regime has secretly constructed an underground nuclear reactor. Burma, North Korea and WMD: A postscript. Andrew Selth is Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute.
Neighbors Hesitant in Addressing Myanmar Nuclear Allegations. PrintShareEmailTwitterFacebookLinkedIn Nations in Southeast Asia have yet to devise a clear response to allegations that Myanmar is secretly developing nuclear weapons with North Korean support, an analyst of the region told Deutsche Presse-Agentur today (see GSN, July 6).
Speculation over Myanmar's alleged nuclear-weapon ambitions gained momentum last month with the release of a five-year study by the Democratic Voice of Burma, an organization of Burmese exiles based in Norway. Myanmar Nuke Suspicions Backed by New Photos, Report Says. PrintShareEmailTwitterFacebookLinkedIn New satellite photographs support the assertions of a Burmese ex-military officer that Myanmar's military junta is trying to build a nuclear weapons program, Bloomberg reported yesterday (see GSN, July 20).
A Tuesday article in Jane's Intelligence Review analyzed satellite images of security perimeters and facilities close to the capital city Naypyidaw and said they corroborate information provided by defector Sai Thein Win to a Burmese opposition group of plants and other installations claimed to fall under a new nuclear arms initiative. "They will not make a bomb with the technology they currently possess or the intellectual capability," Jane’s researcher Allison Puccioni told Bloomberg.
"The two factors do make it possible to have a route to one. " Sai asserted he was employed at two nuclear program plants. The military intelligence journal described the junta's nuclear effort as "overly ambitious with limited expertise. " In 2009, U.S. Former IAEA Official Sees No Signs of Myanmar Nuke Aspirations. PrintShareEmailTwitterFacebookLinkedIn The former safeguards chief at the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday that he is aware of no evidence that would back up claims that Myanmar has initiated a covert nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported (see GSN, Nov. 16).
"It doesn't look like ... this is a kind of nuclear weapons program which is steaming ahead," said Olli Heinonen, who left the U.N. nuclear watchdog in August. "There is no evidence but it would be good to clarify whatever is taking place," Heinonen said. US DoS position on nuclear Burma. Burma’s alleged nuclear weapons program. South Korea to Discuss Nuke Rumors With Myanmar.
PrintShareEmailTwitterFacebookLinkedIn South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Monday rumors about nuclear collaboration between North Korea and Myanmar would be discussed when a high-level envoy from Seoul travels to the Southeast Asian nation this week, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, July 23). Burma Bombshell. Author: Joshua Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia December 20, 2010 The New Republic Many minor Wikileaks scoops have attracted media notice—like the fact that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi apparently always travels with a buxom Ukrainian “nurse”—but one frightening disclosure in particular has not received nearly enough attention.
In several cables written from the U.S. embassy in Rangoon, the largest city (and former capital) of Burma, diplomats provided information about the Burmese junta's potential cooperation with North Korea, including details of what may be nascent nuclear and missile programs. Defector fuels Burma nuclear fears - World news, News.