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