DICTATOR
WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)
Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org
PROOF:
BURMA'S MILITARY JUNTA LIED TO THE IAEA
June 28, 2010
Please
forward widely.
The Democratic Voice of Burma has published photos
and other documentation from their source, Sai Thein Win, about the SPDC's nuclear
ambitions. Former IAEA Director Robert Kelley has examined this evidence and
concluded that the ruling generals have “a clandestine nuclear program.”
Mr.
Kelley also graciously noted that the new evidence confirms what groups such
as Dictator Watch have previously revealed, albeit without tangible backing.
After
being asked by the IAEA on June 14th to explain itself, the SPDC responded on
June 19th that it did not have such a program:
“... the allegations
made by the international media against Myanmar regarding the nuclear programme
are groundless and unfounded; that no activity related to uranium conversion,
enrichment, reactor construction or operation has been carried out in the past,
is ongoing or is planned for the future in Myanmar...”
Dictator
Watch is now in a position to prove that this is a bald-faced lie. We have secured
hard evidence that confirms, and from a completely different direction, that
the SPDC has nuclear designs. Evidence of this has actually been piling up for
years, but our new documentation makes it incontrovertible.
We have obtained
lists of the 660 students who constitute 2009's Batch 9 of the SPDC's State
Scholar Program to Russia, and who are enrolled at a total of 14 different universities;
as well as a list of 50 more students, we suspect from Batch 8, at one of the
universities.
The lists give each student's name, passport number (for
one institute we even have images of their passport ID page), rank in the Burma
Army (for many), area of study, and, most importantly, the SPDC project for
which they are being trained and their detailed educational specialties. From
Batch 9, 111 of the students, or 17%, are assigned to the "Nuclear"
project. Some individuals assigned to other projects also have nuclear related
specialties.
We have previously published information that the total
State Scholar population, since its inception in 2001 (when Burma reached an
agreement to purchase a nuclear reactor from Russia), is as high as 5,000 people.
The figure for Batch 9 makes this estimate appear completely reasonable. Without
doubt, hundreds and hundreds of people have been trained since 2001 for the
Nuclear Project.
Some of the identified specialties are also quite revealing:
-
Production of uranium
- Purification of uranium
- Nuclear power plant
and installation
- Nuclear reactor control system
- Spent fuel reprocessing
Under
a project called HRD, we find production of uranium metals, and zirconium cladding
for enriched uranium fuel; under Computer Control, data processing in nuclear
experiments; and under Rocket, fabrication of uranium plutonium mixed nitride.
While no one is openly being trained in “bomb-making,” the
skills being taught in Russia would certainly prepare some of the students for
the basics of atomic weapons manufacture. Also, as we have previously reported,
a smaller group of Burmese students has studied in North Korea. We have further
learned that teams of North Korean and Chinese experts are now in Burma, although
their precise activities are unclear: The Chinese technicians may be working
on conventional heavy weapons, not nuclear.
An open question is where
all of the nuclear specialists are being employed. Such a large group implies
that there are many different facilities in operation. It also likely means
that the Nuclear Project is broader than what seems apparent from the documentation
of Sai Thein Win. There clearly remains a lot of investigation to do.
Indeed,
we believe a close review of the lists will enlighten technically informed readers
of many elements of the SPDC's overall military modernization program. If you
know the general projects, and the specific areas of study, you should be able
to deduce much about what is planned if not already underway.
The projects
listed include: Nuclear, HRD, Rocket, Tunnel, various computer including Super
Computer, Aero, Air Base, Navy Base, Hydro, Geology, Road and Bridge, and Medical.
In
light of all of this, it is an outright lie for the SPDC to say that it does
not have a nuclear program. The IAEA and the International Community should
reject the junta's statement and instead pursue the most vigorous steps to unveil,
and counteract, its efforts to develop or otherwise obtain atomic weapons.
PDF
LIST
Moscow State Pedagogical
University passports
Moscow
State Pedagogical University
Moscow
State University
State
Technical University - MADI
Moscow
Aviation Institute
Moscow
Institute of Aviation Technology
Moscow
Institute of Electronic Technology
Moscow
State University of Railway Engineering
Moscow
Institute of Physics and Technology
Moscow
Institute of Steel and Alloys
Moscow
Power Engineering Institute
Moscow
State Mining University
Mendeleev
University of Chemical Technology
St.
Petersburg State Marine Technical University
Moscow
State University of Technology - Stankin
Moscow
Institute of Electronic Technology - suspected Batch 8