NAY PYI DAW UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000975

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL BM
SUBJECT: NAY PYI DAW UPDATE

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1. (SBU) Summary: Construction of Burma's new capital city,
Nay Pyi Taw, continues. Gradually foreigners are getting to
see the under-construction city, but plans to invite all of
the Ambassadors are still on hold pending further progress.
The current impression is of a vast green empty space
sparsely populated with buildings. The layout makes no
sense, but then the move made no sense either. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Charge used an invitation to a ceremony marking
World Population Day on July 11 to make her first trip to the
new capital. The German, Philippine, Lao, and Vietnamese
Ambassadors also attended primarily to get a first glimpse of
the new city, along with the UNFPA, UNDP, and WFP heads of
mission. Most drove up the preceding day, which took eight
hours according to the Vietnamese Ambassador. Local
employees of embassies have been making the trip for sometime
now to get various permits. The plane was full both ways, so
plenty of other Burmese are now visiting the new capital.
The new Singaporean and Bruneian Ambassadors became the first
Ambassadors to present their credentials in Nay Pyi Daw in
early June. The outgoing Russian and British Ambassadors
were also invited to pay farewell calls there, although the
British Ambassador had all of her meetings, but one with the
Planning Minister, cancelled at the last minute.


3. (SBU) The initial impression is green and empty. Earlier
photos were taken during the dry season; now monsoon rains
have begun. Since the ceremony only lasted an hour, the
German Ambassador and Charge spent a couple of hours touring
the new city before returning to Rangoon. The ministries are
scattered approximately a mile apart with vast expanses of
now green space in between. Since the setting is hilly, the
view from the tops of the hills is a vast expanse of scrub
vegetation dotted with a few buildings. Each ministry we saw
was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence topped with spooled
barbed wire giving the impression of a prison. Even though
there are vast amounts of empty space the fences hew closely
to the modestly-sized buildings. The only differences we
noted were various sizes of parking lots included inside the
fence. The ministry buildings we saw appear completed with
construction work now focused on building roads to all the
scattered sites. Our driver pointed out a paving machine
"made in the U.S.A." as we drove around the mostly empty
expanse. He also pointed out several buildings under
construction described as the President's Office, the Mayor's
Office, and a new temple "bigger than the Shwedagon," Burma's
most sacred site located in Rangoon long before the British
made it their capital.


4. (SBU) We paid an unannounced call on the Foreign Ministry
since we were in the neighborhood. The Foreign Minister and
his two Deputy Ministers had not come to the office "yet," at
10:30 in the morning. Although taken by surprise, we had a
pleasant chat with the Director General of Political Affairs
Nyan Lwin and the America Desk Director Min Lwin. Unlike the
other ministries, it is almost completely hidden behind a
hill from the main road, but still closely surrounded by
prison-like fencing. We saw a small backyard in which the
staff had planted a kitchen garden. Contrary to earlier
reports of ample electricity, the electricity was off, which
has become increasingly common according to other reports.
We peeked into a few offices and saw long tables and some
mostly empty bookshelves, but almost no office equipment.
The staff appeared to be just sitting around near the open
windows to catch a breeze. Peering up to the second floor,
we saw clothes hanging outside, indicating that the staff are
still living in the Ministry building. Nyan Lwin apologized
for the conditions and offered his opinion that a visit by
all the Ambassadors should wait until after the monsoon.


5. (SBU) We saw a large housing compound of approximately

RANGOON 00000975 002.2 OF 002


30-40 four story apartment buildings painted in bright shades
of pink, blue and green. The housing area is located 10
minutes from the closest ministry and 30-40 minutes from
others. A few apartments appeared occupied with curtains in
the windows. According to Min Lwin, families are now allowed
to move to the new city. However, he added that his family
would not be moving since he had teenaged children in school
in Rangoon. Earlier complaints concerned the lack of public
transport. On this trip we saw old buses similar to those
seen in Rangoon now operating. It appeared that many
ministries have a bus or two to ferry its employees to work.
We saw five or six buses parked at the Commerce Ministry,
while the Foreign Ministry had none.


6. (SBU) You have to see to comprehend the vast distances
with the occasional relatively small building. The airport
is located in the midst of rice paddies and has a colorful
new terminal building, the size of one found at small
provincial airport in Thailand. We detected no radar, and
the control tower was the height of a two story building.
From the airport to the hotel area takes about 20-30 minutes
over rough roads (including a portion of the main
Rangoon-Mandalay road) mostly populated by motorbikes and
ponycarts. To the right of the hotel area was another
endless green space described by our driver as the diplomatic
area. From the hotel area to the ministry area took another
15 minutes along a now empty road under construction. From
the first ministry (Home Affairs) to our destination
Immigration and Population Ministry took another 20 minutes.


7. (SBU) We also drove into the town of Pyinmana, which is
located quite separately from the civilian area,
approximately 20 minutes by car. The defense area, according
to our driver offering to drive us there, was another 45
minute round trip north of Pyinmana. Pyinmana appeared
bustling, which is understandable, but not used to
foreigners. Ponycarts appear to be a primary means of
transportation followed by bicycles and motorbikes. While
most people smiled and said hello when we walked around, the
headmistress of a middle school came running out distressed
that we were taking pictures of her wooden school. She said
that the authorities would question her about why we were
there. But then she pleasantly welcomed us in English, and
the schoolchildren followed us around grinning. We did not
see any obvious looking security officials anywhere during
our freelance tour, except those present at the ceremony
presided by SPDC Secretary 1 LTG Thein Sein.


8. (SBU) Comment: Civil servants returning on the weekends,
continue to report problems with water quality and bugs.
They claim they want to resign, but are not allowed to. The
scattered nature of the buildings in the midst of nothing
reinforces the sense of isolation. Nothing gives the
impression of workable city. No wonder the civil servants
are unhappy. If you are planning to visit, make sure you
bring a good book, because there is nothing much else to do.

VILLAROSA