URGENT: Myanmar junta chief promise

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: URGENT: Myanmar junta chief promises new high-tech weaponry

URGENT NOTICE : This high tech stuff will probally be handled by
Singapore's military technology unit that acts partly as a company. 
They provided high communication and survaillence equipment to the
SLORC/SPDC within the past year.   We must keep this point in our
sites.  China may also be a culprit.
  Warn Thai authorities if they do obtain these weapons.


In a message dated 4/9/99 12:20:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
nculwell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

<< 
 <bold>Myanmar junta chief promises new high-tech weaponry
 
 </bold>
 
 YANGON, April 8 (AFP) - Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe
 has vowed to acquire new state-of-the-art weaponry to ensure the armed
 forces can measure up to any potential enemy, state media said
 Thursday.
 
 
 Than Shwe's call, made in a speech at the Defense Services Academy on
 Wednesday, follows the announcement of a budget guaranteeing 34 percent
 of government spending on the military.
 
 
 "With a view to seeing that our Tatmadaw (military) is able to measure
 up to armies around the world, Tatmadaw men here must keep striving to
 be well versed in high technology," he was reported saying in the New
 Light of Myanmar.
 
 
 "High technology or state-of-the-art weaponry and other modernization
 can be acquired," he said, adding that measures were already being
 taken to "nurture highly proficient human resources."
 
 
 No hint was given as to where new weapons might come from.
 
 
 Details of military-ruled Myanmar's budget began to filter out Monday,
 revealing heavy spending on the armed forces even as its economy
 buckles under foreign sanctions and Asia's economic crisis.
 
 
 Estimated funding for the military amounts to 34 percent of spending
 contained in the 1999/2000 budget, worth a total of 430 billion kyats,
 officials said.
  >>