LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: GOB BEGINS CAPITAL MOVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001265 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2015 TAGS: PGOV PREL BM SUBJECT: LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: GOB BEGINS CAPITAL MOVE REF: A. RANGOON 763 ¶B. CDR500THMIGP CP ZAMA JA (DTG 200059 Z AUG 05) Classified By: CDA Shari Villarosa for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The GOB announced on November 7 that it had commenced an operation to move its "seat of administration" to the remote rural town of Pyinmana in central Burma, 243 miles north of Rangoon. Civil servants from at least nine of the GOB's 30 ministries began moving on November 6, under threat of imprisonment and without their family members. At a surreal November 7 "briefing" for the dip corps (no questions, please),the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister said the move was made in order "to be more effective in the formidable task of building a modern nation" and he described Pyinmana as a "strategic and central location" which would allow the GOB to improve its "command and control." The motives behind this bizarre relocation are, as always, unclear. We don't rule out, however, the advice of astrologers or a desire of the generals to replicate the kings of pre-colonial Burma as motivating factors. End Comment. ¶2. (SBU) After months of speculation (refs A and B),the GOB over the weekend of November 5-6 began in earnest to relocate significant portions of the government bureaucracy to Pyinmana, the site of the military regime's new administrative capital. Observers have seen visible signs in recent weeks of frenzied construction in Pyinmana, a rural town located in southern Mandalay Division, 243 miles north of Rangoon. Most locals, however, had dismissed the concept of a capital move as impractical and illogical. As recent as September, senior MFA officials told the Dean of the diplomatic corps, the Philippines Ambassador, that "we have had no official instructions whatsoever concerning shifting to Pyinmana." ¶3. (C) According to Embassy sources, portions of at least nine of the GOB's thirty ministries began moving to Pyinmana on November 6. Senior regime authorities issued instructions to selected office directors and their staffs, with less than 48 hours notice, to move to Pyinmana by train, plane, and military convoy. The GOB reportedly prohibited family members from accompanying government employees and threatened those who refused to relocate with jail sentences. Senior officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs told Emboffs that roughly one-third of the Ministry, numbering several hundred employees, was relocated during the first weekend of moves. ¶4. (U) On November 7, with only a couple of hours notice (although the Charge received a generous 24-hour notice),the Ministry of Foreign Affairs convoked the diplomatic corps to announce that the "Government of (Burma) had decided to move the seat of administration to Pyinmana in order to be more effective in the formidable task of building a modern nation." Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu, who gave a ten-minute briefing, began by declaring that he would not take any questions. He then described Pyinmana as a "strategic and central location" selected as the new capital "in order for the (GOB) to be more effective at command and control." ¶5. (U) According to DFM Kyaw Thu, the "first phase" of the move to Pyinmana had commenced on November 6. He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would also relocate, but "as of now, there are no plans for Embassies and UN agencies to make the move." He said that "some MFA staff" would be "left behind" in Rangoon to facilitate communications with diplomatic missions. Kyaw Thu noted that diplomatic missions could communicate with the MFA by sending correspondence to the "branch office" in Rangoon for forwarding to the new capital, or "if urgent, you can fax us in Pyinmana." He said that fax numbers would be communicated to diplomatic missions in "due time." Following the dip corps briefing, the Minister of Information briefed local journalists, but also declined to take questions. ¶6. (C) Following the briefing, several senior MFA officials confided with Charge and P/E chief that they were quite unhappy with the relocation. "What can we do?" pondered U Linn Myaing, the last Ambassador to the U.S. He affirmed that portions of the MFA had moved to Pyinmana over the weekend (by plane to Meiktila, some 90 miles away from the new capital) and that he, a Director General, would have to move by the end of the year. He said that others had driven in a truck convoy that took over 12 hours. He guestimated that approximately ten percent of the GOB would be relocated within the coming weeks and noted that he planned to "do a lot of fishing" once he arrived in Pyinmana. COMMENT: KING THAN SHWE ¶7. (C) Can it get any stranger? The Government of Burma barely functions in its current location of Rangoon, where it has intermittent access to electricity and other fundamental infrastructure. Pyinmana lacks even the basics. An already beleaguered civil service will no doubt grow restless without family and friends with whom to commiserate. As per usual practice of the whimsical SPDC generals, the real motives behind this bizarre relocation are unclear. Pyinmana is SPDC Chairman Than Shwe's hometown. He could be following the advice of astrologers or his desire to replicate the kings of pre-colonial Burma, who asserted time and again their legacies by relocating the country's capital (and, we note, eliminating would-be contenders to the throne). End Comment. VILLAROSA