Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04RANGOON131
2004-01-30 09:20:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rangoon
Cable title:  

AN ODD TRIP WITH FIVE BURMESE MINISTERS

Tags:  PGOV PREL MOPS EAID BM 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000131 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS EAID BM
SUBJECT: AN ODD TRIP WITH FIVE BURMESE MINISTERS

Classified By: COM CARMEN M. MARTINEZ FOR REASON 1.5(D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000131

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS EAID BM
SUBJECT: AN ODD TRIP WITH FIVE BURMESE MINISTERS

Classified By: COM CARMEN M. MARTINEZ FOR REASON 1.5(D).


1. (C) Summary: Two Emboffs joined five senior Burmese
cabinet ministers and others in a four-day, 1,400 mile "Study
Visit" of border areas and central Burma January 23 - 26.
Traveling at close quarters with these ministers revealed
them to be greedy, pampered, highly organized, and
perpetually exposed to a Potempkin village image of Burma.
End Summary.


2. (SBU) The Study Visit, and annual affair mounted by the
Ministry of Home Affairs, included seventeen diplomats and
six UN and NGO representatives. A main focus of the trip was
the need for additional assistance to impoverished rural
border areas that formerly grew opium poppies. (See septels
for other aspects of this trip.) The SPDC seemed to have
three objectives in mounting the tour:

A) to influence the travel-restricted, Rangoon-bound
diplomatic corps by highlighting the SPDC's "successes" in
normally inaccessible parts of the country;

B) to show local potentates, both cease-fire group leaders
and Burmese military officers, that the GOB is willing to
help by bringing potential investors and aid donors to their
areas; and

C) to renew and reinforce the personal patron-client ties
linking the ministers and local leaders.


3. (SBU) TIGHT SCRIPTS, BLESSEDLY RELIABLE HELICOPTERS:
Emboffs and others went into the tour with eyes wide open,
knowing full well that the trip would be tightly scripted and
carefully planned with SPDC aims in mind. The logistical
coordination was carried off like clockwork, despite remote
locations, rugged terrain, and the fact that much of the
territory visited was under the control of cease-fire groups,
not the GOB. The group made eighteen takeoffs and landings
in Burmese Air Force Russian-made MI-17 helicopters (the
model involved in the 2002 crash that killed the SPDC's then
Secretary 2). The two MI-17s were configured with 24

SIPDIS
aircraft-type seats each and proved reliable, if noisy and
cramped. One was built in 1992, the other in 1997, according
to the aircrews. A Russian company had a service contract
until 2001, but now all maintenance is reportedly done by the

Burmese Air Force.


4. (SBU) A TYPICAL STOP: Most of the tour was spent in
ethnic minority areas of Shan State bordering China or
Thailand, areas where opium poppy cultivation in recent years
had been the main agricultural activity. A typical stop went
something like this:

-- helicopters land at freshly prepared helipads, visitors
disembark and are met by cease-fire group leaders, then
parade down long lines of locals turned out to greet the
VIPs. Hundreds of villagers clap, listlessly wave small
Burmese flags, or chant "Mingalaba" (the typical Burmese
greeting),though few, if any, of the villagers speak
Burmese. The villagers are not smiling.

-- Group approaches a fleet of parked Land Cruisers, followed
by vans, and a bus or two. Most vehicles do not have Burmese
license plates, but sport those of the local cease-fire
group's autonomous region. Locals hold placards outside each
vehicle with the names of the intended passengers--all in
strict protocol order. Ministers, ambassadors, and various
lower life forms mount vehicles, which roar off in a cloud of
dust to a meeting hall.

-- Lectures begin, usually after a brief welcome by the local
authority. Each lecture includes a PowerPoint presentation,
a statistical compilation of infrastructure built, and a plea
for additional international assistance. Juice or pop,
bottled water, fruit, tea, and savory snacks are on coffee
tables near each chair. There are clearly marked flush
toilets available at every stop. The Foreign Minister
usually gets in the last word, then the group dashes out to
the vehicles to inspect a development project or two.

-- After visiting a rice mill, Japanese-funded clinic, or
Thai-funded agro project, the vehicles roar back to the
helipad, where a folkloric troupe dances us farewell. As the
gale-force wash of the helicopter blades throws a wall of
grit and debris over the hapless dance troupe, we lift off
for the next event on the itinerary.


5. (C) GI'ME THAT THING, WHATEVER IT IS: The ministers
expected to be comped wherever they went. The group stayed
in government-owned hotels, a few of which were specially
stocked with a variety of give-away items. In Maymyo (Pyin U
Lwin) the ministers went out for an early golf game and
helped themselves to new balls, socks, and hats from the pro
shop, according to an accompanying diplomat. They got crates
of tangerines when the group visited a citrus farm. One
minister requisitioned leftover promotional satchels at a dam
construction site and had his batman carry the lot out to the
helicopter. After each lunch or overnight stop, the
ministers' lackeys hauled out bottles of booze, wrapped
presents, and other goodies.

6. (C) VICE? WHAT VICE?: Many of the notoriously sordid
border cities we visited were surprisingly quiet, almost
deserted. Our GOB hosts attributed it to Chinese New Year
celebrations and travels. However, another Emboff was in the
border-crossing town of Mongla the day after the Study Visit
left, and found it buzzing with vice, business, and shady
characters (septel). In one Wa town UNODC reps said the
casino had been closed down the night before the group
arrived.


7. (C) NO RESPECT: Oddly, the ministers were formal and
very protocol conscious, but fairly discourteous to each
other. Often during one minister's lecture, another would
stand up and begin talking to someone else. Commerce
Minister Pyi Sone, wearing four heavily bejeweled rings, said
almost nothing the whole trip. He did beam broadly when his
colleagues announced that the next stop (Mong Ywan) was where
he had led the successful attack on drug baron Khun Sa's last
stronghold in 1996. Foreign Minister Win Aung was a real
"gas bag," to quote one participant, who always wanted to
have the last word on any subject. Labor Minister Tin Win
twice mentioned, in hurt tones, the United State's 1997
sanctions, imposed when he was ambassador in Washington.
Home Affairs Minister Tin Hlaing was the only one always in
uniform and took a leading role when we met with the Wa and
Kokang leadership. Border Areas Minister Thein Nyunt was
pleased to see billboards featuring pictures of him meeting
Kokang leaders in the Kokang capital of Laukkai. In short,
the group of five always seemed to be jockeying for position,
profile, or advantage.


8. (C) PAMPERED: During one long helicopter flight Emboff
was startled to see a police major jump up from his seat and
dash toward the front of the aircraft. No emergency, just
that Brig. General Khin Yi, Director General of the Burmese
Police Force, was struggling to get his arm out of his jacket
sleeve. When the group arrived at Magway airport to fly back
to Rangoon, we noted five police officers standing at
attention in the terminal, all holding long black umbrellas.
Odd, we thought, since it hadn't rained in Magway since
September. When the five ministers began the seventy-foot
amble out to the aircraft, the Parasol Patrol leaped into
action, unfurling the umbrellas and running to catch the
ministers, awkwardly holding them above the ministers' heads
to keep any strong rays from discomforting the VIPs.


9. (C) COMMENT: While many of the diplomatic participants
were embarrassed or put off by the ministers' attitudes and
behavior, the ministers themselves seemed to quite enjoy the
trip. After the power, fawning, and advantages accruing to
the ministers under the military regime, wouldn't it be hard
for them to go back to the barracks and return to ordinary
soldiering, we wondered? Despite the nature of the Study
Visit, Embassy Rangoon's participation was worthwhile for
several reasons. It gave us insights to the various
ministers and their interactions with local authorities, got
us into remote areas of interest to the USG (such as the UWSA
capital of Pan San and some sensitive parts of Magway
Division),allowed us to successfully twist the arms of
ministers on outstanding bilateral issues, and enabled us to
see UNODC and other assistance projects in action. A weird,
but worthwhile trip. End Comment.
Martinez