Government on the run

Burma's generals are planning to head for the hills

By LARRY JAGAN

Burma's top generals have finally begun their planned move to the hills North of Rangoon. For months Rangoon had been rife with rumours that the country's military rulers were planning to retreat to the hills in central Burma because of fears of a foreign invasion from the sea. This week deputy ministers have begun the major shift to the new government centre at Pyinmana.

More than two weeks ago the deputy interior minister cleared his desk in the ministry building ready to move. He is now installed in his newly completed offices, according to Burmese government sources. The ministers apparently are remaining in Rangoon for the time being and are slated to move by the end of the year.

Ten ministries have been relocated this week, including the interior, agriculture, forestry and power ministries. The government's Central Bureau of Statistics is also being transferred out of Rangoon. The second phase will begin at the start of next month follow by a further move at the beginning of January.

This is the start of a mass relocation of the Burmese government and military headquarters out of Rangoon. According to the blue-prints for the new complex, it is actually going to replace Rangoon as the country's capital.

``This is typical of Than Shwe's pretensions to be the new Burmese monarch. Like all the Burmese kings before him he is building a new palace-capital for posterity,'' according to a senior Burmese analyst, Win Min based in Thailand.

Burma's military rulers are preparing to relocate the country's centre of government inland for safety reasons, according to diplomats and government officials in Rangoon.

The military's headquarters, government ministries and the new parliament are all scheduled to be moved to an inland location within the next twelve months in what many in Burma are now calling ``Escape City''.

The massive complex at Pyinmana, some four hundred kilometres north of Rangoon in central Burma, will become the new seat of government. The first stage of the construction, including key government offices, has been completed, according to Burmese businessmen involved in the work.

The complex will house the military war office, all government ministries and a new parliament, according to a Burmese government official who has seen the blue-prints.

The whole area is more than 100km2. ``It's one of the biggest constructions I have ever seen,'' a western diplomat in Rangoon told the Bangkok Post.

Mansions for the senior generals, government offices and national headquarters for the country's ethnic groups and the USDA (Union Solidarity and Development Association) are also being built.

The ceiling in the national headquarters is an astounding 30m high according to the architectural plans.

Although a new parliament is under construction, it is unclear from the plans whether there are plots allocated to the political parties, particularly Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, according to the government official.

Bunkers, tunnels, a large military hospital, apartments, a huge airstrip and a golf course are being built according to eye-witnesses. Two international standard hotels and two large supermarkets are also being constructed, according to an architect involved in the project.
 

The creation of the new capital is primarily the idea of the top general Than Shwe. The plans have been in the pipeline for several years now and building started nearly two years ago.

``The planned retreat is essentially strategic,'' said an Asian diplomat who regularly deals with Rangoon.

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 reinforced the top generals' fear that the US might attack Burma, according to analysts. Burma's military strategists have long argued that the country's defences were vulnerable to an attack from the sea. Burma's top generals have always suffered from a siege mentality. ``Than Shwe has a bunker mentality, and when he's completely secure he'll launch his offensives,'' according to the Burmese analyst, Win Min. ``But a key strategic drawback of the site is its lack of access to the sea _ it is not close to a port,''he added.

Many analysts believe that the move is also intended to give the regime better access to the frontier areas, especially the Chin, Karen, Kayah and Shan where most ethnic groups with ceasefire pacts with Rangoon are strong.

``Although the ethnic organisations have ceasefire agreements with the junta, the top generals remain highly suspicious of the ethnic groups and want to be in a better position to control them if they need to,'' said Win Min.

But now, according to the plans, the whole military and government administration is to be relocated there. Even foreign embassies are likely to have to follow the Burmese government when they are finally transplanted into the hills.

Several ministries are now scheduled to move to the new capital in the next few months, according to diplomats. Civil servants were panicked by the planned move when it emerged several months ago.

``The civil servants do not want to move. There's no infrastructure, especially schools for their kids,'' said Win Min.


Thousands of villagers have been up-rooted and relocated to make way for the construction of the new capital. Over the past two years more than ten thousand people have been removed from the site of the new complex.

At the beginning of May another three thousand local residents were ordered to vacate their villages, and more than five thousand villagers are scheduled to be relocated at the start of next year.

The International Labour Organisation has received many complaints of the extensive use of forced labour and relocations.

In a recent report the ILO representative in Rangoon said there had been allegations that villagers had been forced to construct camps and facilities for several army battalions and an air defence squadron providing security for the site.

``At least 14 villages had to provide 200 workers each on a daily basis for the work,'' according to the ILO report. The villagers also had to supply roofing and construction material as well as transport for the project.

The Burmese government has dismissed these allegations as baseless.

The main construction work is being largely carried out by several prominent Burmese companies including Htoo Trading, owned by the wealthy magnate and arms dealer Tay Za, who is reputed to be very close to Than Shwe. But more than thirty building companies are taking part in the construction work.

Each building company has been given a specific project within the overall plans, according to a construction contractor who is building a residential block. ``Administrative and office buildings, as well as living quarters for more than five hundred people have been completed,'' one of the builders working on the complex told the Bangkok Post.

The whole project is costing millions of dollars, according to a building contractor working on the project. `` It's an open budget _ no expense is being spared,'' he said. A sergeant in charge of overseeing a part of the construction can commission work worth a 100 million kyat (693 million baht) without referring it to his superiors, he added.

Some buildings have been torn down and rebuilt at least three times because the commander in charge was not happy with the finished work when he saw it. ``These people are so ignorant they cannot read the architectural plans; they can only decide when they see it constructed,'' the builder said.

Originally builders had been ordered to complete the construction by Army Day _ March 27 this year.

New projects have also been started 30km north of the new capital, said an eye-witness.

Burma's top general Than Shwe now seems set to try to complete the final move to Pyinmana before the end of March next year

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Nov 7, 2005
Myanmar, fearing US invasion, moves ministries to hills

YANGON - MYANMAR'S military junta yesterday started moving key ministries to a secret location in the mountains and dense forest.

The ruling generals made no announcement concerning the move. But officials said the relocation of the commerce, foreign, home affairs and post and telecommunications ministries to Pyinmana, about 320km north of the capital Yangon, began early yesterday.

Analysts say the move - under preparation for several months - was prompted by fears of an invasion by the United States, one of the junta's staunchest critics.

They said the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq apparently reinforced Yangon's fears.

A ministry source told AFP that the junta ordered all the ministries on Friday to move half of their staff including deputy ministers to Pyinmana. But the ministers can reportedly stay on in Yangon. The government ordered the relocation process to be completed by April next year.

Sources also say the generals have built or are building an airfield, hospital, golf course and medium-sized hydro-electric power plant at the new headquarters.

Civil servants were kept in the dark about the relocation until Friday morning.

'We started moving effective this morning. Conveys of trucks, carrying things and personnel from various ministries left here for Pyinmana early this morning,' a senior government official told Reuters.

'We don't know anything about this place - where to live, what to eat,' said the official, who asked not to be named.

Speculation has been rife about a possible relocation for two years or so, but the move still caught many off guard.

'I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard about this project. We were all officially informed on Friday. We were shocked to hear it,' said a junior Commerce Ministry official.

'My father is from another department and he left for Pyinmana this morning. I will have to go there in the second batch, maybe in December. My sick mother will be left here alone,' he said.

Government officials say they have been given no option but to decamp from Yangon.

After winning independence from Britain after World War II, Myanmar enjoyed a brief period of democracy before the military seized power in 1962. The army has run the country ever since, ignoring the results of a 1990 election they lost heavily. The US and European Union have imposed sanctions for its suppression of the pro-democracy movement. -- REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE  [8-Nov-2005]