The Burmese military regime is constructing a tunnel in Rakhine Yoma, some 80 km west of Padan Township in Magway Division, local sources said.The tunnel is 50 feet wide and 50 feet high, a worker from the project said, and is being supervised by North Korean technicians.
“Only cars which are authorized by the local army can enter the project area,” he said. “The tunnel is quite long and when they dynamite the tunnel, people have just 30 minutes to get outside.”Another worker said that the new tunnel is connected to several other tunnels that are burrowed into the mountainside.
Workers such as carpenters and welders work in day and night shifts, and earn 900 kyat (US $0.90) per shift at the site, the worker said.
On Friday, fresh evidence of the regime constructing a secret network of hidden bunkers and tunnels across the country surfaced. According to an investigative film by an exiled Burmese broadcaster, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), which was aired by Al Jazeera on Friday, some tunnels are marked as substations for fiber optic cables and are part of a plan to provide the military with a secure nationwide communications network.
“They are constructing a tunnel ... a huge tunnel. Many tunnels all over the country,” said Sai Thein Win—a former defense engineer and missile expert who recently defected from the army—in the film.
The documentary also revealed bunkers alleged to be used as secret military storage facilities and command centers in case of aerial attacks.
When Ne Win’s socialist government was in power in the 1980s and 90s, a series of defense and military equipment factories were built between the Irrawaddy River and Rakhine Yoma, and in Htone Bo, Nyaung Chay Htauk and Ma Lon. The factories are connected with the Pathein- Monywa highway. Padan is also located near the Pathein- Monywa highway with easy access to the strategic Min Bu– Amm highway.
No transparent plans or records exist that describe the tunnel project, nor whether it is for military or economic purposes.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, a source from Naypyidaw’s military community said, “There are a lot of secret military projects in Minn Done, Padan, Pwint Phyu, Say Tote Taya, Salin, Pakkoku, Laung Shay, Saw and on the western side of Seik Phyu Township.”
He continued: “When the current telecommunications minister, Maj-Gen Thein Zaw, was chairman of Magway Division, he planned to extract uranium with Col Zaw Minn, the commander of 88 Command in Saku.”
He said the military regime also has plans to construct munitions factories in Bago Yoma, Naypyidaw, Natt Mauk, Aung Lan and Pauk Khaung.
Sai Thein Win told the DVB that he has shown the secret files from the project to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In November 2008, a Burmese military delegation led by Gen Shwe Mann flew secretly to North Korea and met the army-in-chief, Gen Kim Kyok-sik. They agreed terms of cooperation on several military initiatives, including radar and jamming units, air defense systems, and a computer-controlled command center. The delegation also visited North Korean SCUD missile factories which are located in the tunnels.
The two countries signed an agreement that North Korea will help in the construction of military facilities for missiles, aircraft and war ships.
Further evidence of cooperation between the two countries surfaced in June 2009 when a ship from North Korea en route to Burma was suspected of carried weapons. International media agencies broadcast footage and photos of the Burmese regime's network of tunnels and claimed they were part of an underground nuclear bunker.
The Irrawaddy reporter Ba Kaung contributed to this article.
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