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BURMA BECOMING THE FIFTH ASIAN NUCLEAR POWER WITH THE HELP OF N. KOREA

Hillary Clinton U.S. Secretary of State expressed her country's concerns recently about nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Burma's ruling military junta. On her recent Asian visit, she said that the alliance could destabilise the whole region.
"We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology" from North Korea to Burma, she said in an interview with Thailand's Nation TV.

Further in Phuket, Clinton again referred to the "concerns that are being expressed about cooperation between North Korea and Burma in the pursuit of offensive weapons, including nuclear weapons," she said.

Suspicions about Burma and North Korea came to the world's attention recently, after a US Navy destroyer last month began tracking a suspect North Korean ship reportedly heading for Burma under UN sanctions.


The following material based primarily on the contributions of Prof. Ball an expert on the matter with supporting material from Phil Thornton, along with the evidence of two defectors of senior rank in the Junta of Burma/Myanmar. Professor Ball and Phil Thornton spent two years investigating the Burmese military junta's nuclear programmes. Their report along with testimony from the defectors, have forced observers to conclude the uncomfortable probability of a Burma/Myanmar with a nuclear capability.


The Burmese Junta and North Korean Junta are now close allies. In June 2007 an investigation began with separate interviews of two Burmese defectors that would continue until early July 2009. The first interviewed was a senior Burmese army defector, on the Thai-Burma border, who had crossed the border into Thailand. He was extremely worried about the price his family would have to pay.

Before turning his back on his country's nuclear plans, he was an officer with 10 years of disciplined army service and a graduate of Burma's prestigious Defence Services Academy.

In 2003 he was selected by the junta to spend two years studying at Moscow's Engineering Physics Institute in the Faculty of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. He was sent to study engineering and did not know initially, he would end up in the nuclear project. He was part of a second batch of 75 trainees sent to Russia as part of Burma/Myanmar's nuclear programmes to train thousands.

Another civilian, who before defecting, worked as a bookeeper for a business tycoon and a colleague of the Burmese junta, including Than Shwe. The company he worked for organised the nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea. He spoke perfect English and presented his reports with authority. Before defecting, he had interacted daily with the junta's elite in Burma.. He insisted Burma's publicly stated policies for having a nuclear programme were simply a cover.

"They [junta] say it's to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals. How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science? Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense." The World Health Organisation ranks Burma's health system as the second worst out of 192 countries and the junta spends more than 40% of its budget on its military and less than 3% on health and education combined, it is highly unlikely Burma/Myanmar is developing or investing in a nuclear reactor for the health or benefit of its population.

What the defectors say, confirms transcripts of Burmese Army communications, on public record. It is widely reported that nuclear reactors have been built at eight or nine different sites.

Not everyone in South-east Asia agrees about the extent or the purpose of one site at Naung Laing. A senior regional security official with extensive inside information about the area disagrees.

"Before it was a heavily guarded 'no-go zone'. Now you can drive right up to the buildings. Villagers are allowed to grow crops again. Even though the signs say; 'Military Science and Technology Ministry' and there are soldiers, the level of security has been drastically reduced. I think it's now a decoy site, to distract people away from the Myaing area."

The Myaing reactor is located in Magwe division and is known as the "Nyaungone Project". It was part of an agreement signed with the Russian atomic agency Rosatom (the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency) in May 2007 to build a 10-megawatt light-water reactor using 20 % enriched Uranium-235, nuclear waste treatment facilities, an activation analysis laboratory, medical isotope production laboratory to train several hundred specialists for the nuclear centre.

A previous US State Department deputy spokesman, Tom Casey, reported that the US "wouldn't like to see a project like this move forward" without Burma/Myanmar having nuclear regulatory and security infrastructure in place.

Another "secret" or military reactor site that the defectors provided a large amount of detailed information on was built inside a mountain by North Koreans at Naung Laing. Both of the defectors agree the underground mountain facilities house another 10-megawatt light-water research reactor.

North Korean and Burmese/Myanmar junta's work on nuclear matters began in earnest in September of 2000, when an agreement was signed by Burma's Lieutenant General Thein Hla and North Korea's Major General Kim Chan Su. Four more contracts were signed in 2001-02.

The "official" agreements between the two countries covered nuclear related activities at two sites and involved North Korea to help with installing, maintaining, training and supplying equipment at the uranium refining and enrichment plant at Thabike Kyin. At the second reactor site at Naung Laing the North Koreans agreed to help with the construction of an underground facility and a nuclear reactor. In 2004-05 a tunnel wide enough for two 10-wheel trucks to pass each other was dug into the smaller of three adjacent mountains. The junta has taken steps to protect their reactors by installing air defence radar, to be "deployed" at the airbase at Pyin Oo Lwin and at the reactor's site.

In recent months, as North Korea struts its nuclear capacity it has been building closer ties with the Burmese/Myanmar junta by supplying arms and missile technology to them.

The defectors have stated that the junta's army have been building a nuclear research and engineering centre in the vicinity of Naung Laing village since 2002, south east of Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Division. Pyin Oo Lwin is home to the Defence Services Academy, one of the defector's old alumni. One of the defectors was told, that after he returned from Moscow, he would be assigned to a special nuclear battalion at one of the nuclear sites in Burma.

''After I came back from Russia I was assigned to develop a system to fire 155 howitzers. But first I had to do three months training, run by [North] Korean technicians, on using artillery missile systems.''

Uranium mining takes place in more than 10 locations in Burma/Myanmar. At Taundwingyi, next to one of the uranium sites identified by the Junta's Ministry of Energy, the North Koreans have built a large underground bunker. In addition to these sites, high resolution imagery published by GoogleEarth in 2007 show what many believe is a uranium mine and related refinery at Myit Nge Chaung, about 23km from Mandalay. In April this year, it was reported that reactor-grade uranium for Burma's nuclear programme was being mined near Lashio in northern Shan State.

According to radio transcripts, Russian uranium prospectors made three exploration missions to Tennasserim Division in southern Burma in 2004-05. The explorers' movements were tracked as they flew from Rangoon on July 8, 2004, to Myeik and their subsequent prospecting around the area of Theindaw from July 18 to October 5, 2004.

Burma has at least two uranium refining and processing plants in operation for crushing, grinding, washing and refining the uranium ore into ''yellowcake'' , a concentrate of uranium oxides in powder form. "Yellowcake" is later converted to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) for enrichment to provide fuel for reactors or fissle material for nuclear weapons.

''They're aware they cannot compete with some of their neighbour's conventional weapons. The junta want to play nuclear poker with their neighbours like North Korea. They hope to combine their nuclear and air defence missiles. One of the defectors said the nuclear programme is known as the 'UF6 Project' and is the responsibility of a General Maung Aye.''

Both processing plants are close to the Irrawaddy River, one is just seven kilometres from the river and is near the Tha Pa Na Military Science and Technology Development Center and the other plant is near the Thabike Kyin township.

Barges are used along the waterways to transport the heavy uranium ore rather than rely on the junta's totally inadequate road system. One of the defectors trading companies controls most of the shipping in and out of Burma/Myanmar, so it was easy for him to organize moving the equipment to the nuclear sites from Rangoon.

"He arranges for army trucks to pick up the containers of equipment from the North Korean boats that arrive in Rangoon and transport them at night by highway to the river or direct to the sites."

The defector said that there were more than five North Koreans working at the Thabike Kyin plant. He said Russian cleaning machines were used to "wash" the ore and that Burma/Myanmar also provides yellow cake for North Korea.

GoogleEarth imagery published in 2007 shows a facility with what looks like four giant "thickening tanks" in which the uranium bearing solution is separated from the ground ore before being converted to yellowcake.



SO BOTTOM LINE, HAS BURMA GOT NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

The essence of the defectors testimony is that Burma has already got key parts of the nuclear fuel cycle in place. The defectors said that the army definetly "planned" to build a plutonium reprocessing plant at Naung Laing, and that Russian experts were already "teaching plutonium reprocessing" at the site.

A "nuclear battalion" was established by the regime in 2000 to work on the "weaponisation" aspects of the nuclear programme. It is based near the village of Taungdaw, just west of the Naung Laing complex. The operations component is in another underground complex in the nearby Setkhya Mountains. It includes engineering, artillery and communications on operational aspects of weapons design, delivery capability and a command and control centre.

One defector says that next year, Burma will have 1,000 people trained with access to uranium, in refining yellowcake and already has two light water reactors.

"You don't need 1,000 people in the fuel cycle or to run a nuclear reactor. It's obvious there is much more going on." he said

Burma has the ability to extract plutonium from the spent fuel rods and to separate plutonium-239 from plutonium-240 it needs for a plutonium reprocessing plant so it can produce seven to eight kilograms of weapon-grade Plutonium-239 a year, enough for one bomb a year.

The "secret" reactor could be capable of being operational and producing a bomb of their own a year, every year, after 2014.The Junta's nuclear weapons programme currently still requires external support beyond the rudimentary Russian training and North Korean assistance is essential with the current uranium refining capabilities and reactor operations. North Korea is more than interested in providing limited amounts of fissionable plutonium in return for yellowcake.

It is in North Korea's military interest, and in line with their nuclear posturing, to construct a secret plutonium reprocessing plant in Burma, complementing the secret reactor, in exchange for access to the fissionable product. The defectors talked explicitly of the regime meeting their nuclear programme objectives by having a "handful of bombs ready".

Unfortunately, it is not as bizarre or ridiculous as some neighbouring sceptics would like to think. Burma's regional neighbours, Thailand in particular, need to watch carefully, especially for signs of any reprocessing plant. If its confirmed the junta has built them, then the only possible explanation is that they also plan to build more bombs themselves, separate from any warheads already supplied by N. Korea.

Burma/Myanmar with nuclear weapons should be a worry for its neighbours, if the junta's treatment of its own citizens, victms to last year's cyclone Nargis is a benchmark. Their response was to treat it as a national security threat, by banning journalists, ignoring offers of outside help for weeks, while leaving their people to die in their hundreds of thousands.

Cities in the region adjacent to Burma/Myanmar like Bangkok, with a population of nine million cannot expect any more mercy from the junta, if there is any sort of nuclear accident or strike. Although curiously a certain Prof Dr Likhit Dhiravegin, a Fellow of the Royal Institute in Thailand, believes it would be better if the United States were to leave Asia alone. Japan and S.Korea rely heavily on American protection from North Korea's nuclear weapons. Thailand itself has increased its military budget to 83 billion Thai baht this year alone and is fostering closer ties with China.


Professor Desmond Ball works at the Australian National University's Defence Studies Centre. He is the author of more than 40 books on nuclear strategy, Australian defence, and security in the Asia-Pacific. He also served as the co-chair of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. Phil Thornton who is the author of Restless Souls: rebels, refugee, medics misfits on the Thai/Burma/Myanmar border.

BURMA HUMILIATES THE UN CHIEF AGAIN

Today was a sad day for Burma with the head of the UN Ban Ki-Moon humiliated once again by the Burmese Junta. He gave a rare public speech outlining his vision for a democratic Burma, just hours after the ruling junta refused to let him meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban told an audience of diplomats, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations that the military regime must free the pro-democracy icon and introduce other reforms for the good of the country's people.

"I am here today to say: Myanmar, you are not alone. We want to work with you for a united, peaceful, prosperous, democratic and modern Myanmar," Ban said at the Drug Elimination Museum in the commercial hub Rangoon. He used the ruling military regime's name for Burma throughout his visit.

"We want to help you rise from poverty ... work with you so that your country can take its place as a respected and responsible member of the international community," the secretary general said.

"But let me emphasise: neither peace nor development can thrive without democracy and respect for human rights. Myanmar is no exception."

Junta chief Than Shwe earlier Saturday refused to let Ban visit Aung San Suu Kyi.


Back on April the 10 of last year I constructed a blog on the the deaths of 54 migrant workers from Burma. The only possible escape for a lucky few from a brutal merciless dictatorship. I use these words carefully as I have witnessed it frequently with my own eyes. Of course they are just words and in a world where we are overwhelmed with atrocity upon atrocity before our eyes daily its easy to become numb to what the reality of todays news means for the impoverished destitute Burmese people tomorrow. The song below refers to immigrants from Mexico which is now termed a failed state. Burma has long since failed its people indeed as hurricane Nargis demonstrated the junta or regime has no regard whatsoever for its own people.

54 Burmese found dead in a cold storage truck

Fifty-four Burmese were found dead from suffocation, in a cold storage truck which was abandoned in Ranong province on late Wednesday.

Police also found 47 survivors. Of them, 21 were hospitalised in a nearby hospital. Police believed the Burmese were illegal immigrants who were smuggled into Ranong and were on their way to Phuket.

That was it, the total mention on one of the National newspapers here in Phuket, just a few lines. They were poor, they were illegal immigrants who were smuggled into Ranong and were on their way to Phuket to try to find work. The migrants were supposed to pay 5000 baht ($170) each to transport them from the Burma-Thai border in Ranong to the nearby paradise resort isle of Phuket.Probably most of the women were young mothers, forced to take their chances to feed their young children, this is the norm. Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men.

Of course if all of these young people were western students for example, the media coverage would be so much different.

Cheap lives in in our modern fascist world, where nobody seems to care. Where has our humanity gone ? Where has our natural human nature or empathy gone ??? The survivors were arrested.

I awoke to this news this morning here in Phuket, followed by the news that Israel refuses to allow the UN Human rights observer into Israel or the occupied territories. Once again another state snubbing international law and the UN with impunity.

 

Thai officials inspect the dead bodies of Burmese migrants who died in a seafood container in Ranong province. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

 

Link to Film Background;

http://www.hillerphoto.com/burma/fs_container.htm

KICK A DOG

Burma keeps hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons. Having lived myself, through years of a neo-colonialist war in the Northern part of Ireland and visiting Burma, I realized that this story of oppression, needs to be told in a sensitive way, so that people from a normal society can understand, what it is like to live, in such an oppressive environment, why people resort to violence in such circumstances, the above website and the account therein, is the best that I have found, to explain honestly, what Burma is like as I have seen it.

Why soldiers treat their own people like this, can be best explained from my own experience simply in the following crude way.

If you kick your friendly pet dog everyday for years you will create have a vicious animal. This is the sad reality of Burma from my observations, furthermore oppression has been so long and so chronic, the more sensitive are losing their minds.

Every day for many years now, Burmese people have been slaves to the Junta, they are literally like dogs who are kicked every day by a brutal society engineered by this bullying regime, this is what I have witnessed myself.

Change in the name of humanity, is imperative, after the recent ruthless crackdown of the Monk's demonstrations there.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. I am not sure about that, can we try ?. We cannot allow the reality of Burma to slip into background again, until it is next popular to demonstrate, we must keep it in the international consciousness and limelight. I would ask you to please forward this story and website to a friend and ask them to pass it on.

BBC UNCENSOR BURMA

The BBC has some excellent reporters but unfortunately their editors and sub editors run a regime of brutal censorship. For some strange reason their censorship policy does not apply to Burma otherwise known as Myanmar. This is an example of one of their better reporters who in this instance was not censored.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8131869.stm

Nuclear North Korea Arming Burma

North Korea is secretly helping Burma to build an underground complex around it capital, along with other strategic locations. Believed to have begun in 2003, they are now ready for use, possibly including long range nuclear missiles.

North Korean technicians helped the Burmese Junta to construct underground facilities where they can also survive any threats from their own people or the outside world, in the event of Nuclear warfare with its neighbours or with its own people. It is not known exactly how many sites are linked to Burma’s reported efforts to develop nuclear technology from North Korea because of dangerous secrecy restrictions on communications with the outside world.

The export of nuclear know-how to Burma was first documented in June 2006, when intelligence agencies intercepted messages from Naypyitaw the new capital of Burma, confirming the arrival of a group of North Korean experts at the sites. North Korean tunnelling technology is of a very high quality, with bunkers and silos up to 50 meters below ground, offering facilities such as missile silos, nuclear laboratories, electricity, ventilation and running water. The missiles would put most of Burma's Asean neighbours along with India and Pakistan, within range of any possible nuclear Burmese strike.


Below is the latest linked report from Al Jazeera


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/06/20096255353936689.html

NORTH KOREA MISSILE PARTS FOR BURMA JUNTA - NewsTrust.net

NORTH KOREA MISSILE PARTS FOR BURMA JUNTA - NewsTrust.net

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NORTH KOREA MISSILE PARTS FOR BURMA JUNTA

A North Korean ship that a US destroyer is tracking as part of efforts to enforce UN sanctions, is believed to be carrying missiles or related parts, a report said on today.
South Korea's media citing an unnamed intelligence source, said the ship was heading for Burma via Singapore. The 2,000-tonne Kang Nam 1 left North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 with Burma set as its final destination media said.

"The United States believes that the Kang Nam 1 may carry missiles or related parts and that the ship is likely to stop at Singapore on her route," the source said.

A US defence official said on Friday the USS John S. McCain was shadowing the Kang Nam 1, the first vessel to be monitored under a UN resolution imposed, that bans shipments of arms and nuclear or missile technology to and from North Korea.

Another defence official said the ship was one of a group of vessels previously linked to illicit missile-related cargo. It was unclear what cargo the ship was carrying but 'once a suspect, always a suspect', he said.

US officials have yet to indicate if they will search the vessel under the UN Security Council resolution.

The North Koreans are expected to reject any such request. The ship will likely stop for refuelling along the Chinese coast or elsewhere, US officials said. At that point, the country where the ship enters port is obliged under the UN resolution to search the vessel if there are grounds for suspicion.

Pentagon officials declined to comment on a report saying the Navy destroyer was heading to intercept the North Korean vessel. The officials stressed that the UN sanctions do not authorise military force and that Washington was pursuing a diplomatic strategy.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high since Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test last month. After the underground test and subsequent missile launches, the Security Council adopted the UN resolution last week that includes financial sanctions designed to choke off revenue to the regime.

If the crew does not accept inspection on high seas, North Korea is required to direct the vessel to a port for inspection by the local authorities there.

Singapore, said it would act "appropriately" if the vessel docks at its ports. But there was doubt that Burma would cooperate with such an inspection.


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Aung San Suu Kyi

Today is the 64th birthday of Burma's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.


Ms Suu Kyi has been under detention for much of the past 19 years.



Global action totally inadequate.



A message from a group of women Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Guatemalan rights activist Rigoberta Menchu and anti-landmine campaigner Jody Williams said: "Your imprisonment and trial are a stark illustration of the brutality and lawlessness of the Burmese military regime."




http://www.hillerphoto.com/burma/fs_container.htm



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