Narinjara News


RAKHINE STATE NAVAL BASE MOVED TO KYAUKPYU IN WESTERN MYANMAR

Sittwe, 12^th January 02:  As part of a sweeping change in relocating defence headquarters in Rakhine State, the western region of Myanmar, the Dhanyawaddy Naval Base has been moved to Kyaukpyu from Sittwe, according to our correspondent from Sittwe.
At present there are ten defence services headquarters in Rakhine State.  Among them Dhanyawaddy is only in second importance to the Western Command which was moved to Ann in the first quarter of last year after the race riots in February.  Dhanyawaddy Naval Base was moved to Kyaukpyu, where the Chinese engineers and technicians had been engaged in building a deep-sea submarine base,  by the end of 2001. The naval base at Kyaukpyu has been promoted to one under the control of a newly installed rear admiral, Mya Swe.
After relocation of the Western Command, the  important defence headquarters to Ann, only a Regional Defence Administration (Detha Kwaetke Hmu Sitthana Gyouk, DaKaSa)  has been installed in  Sittwe.  General Phon Swe has been installed as the commander of DaKaSa.  Now as Dhanyawaddy has been moved to Kyaukpyu, the Myanmar Navy has also been given a shake-up in its administration in Sittwe and demoted from its former status of Regional Naval Headquarter of the western region. 
Recently all the regional commanders have been reshuffled and Brigadier Maung Oo has been installed as the new Western Commander.   General Aung Htwe, former Western Commander has been made Commander-in-charge  of  the Defence Services in Rakhine State from 30^th December 2001, according to the Myanmar TV broadcast. #