US embassy cable - 03RANGOON1183

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 001183 
 
SIPDIS 
 
TREASURY FOR OASIA JEFF NEIL 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2013 
TAGS: MARR, PGOV, PREL, PHUM, BM 
SUBJECT: BURMA: REGIME STEPS UP MILITIA TRAINING 
 
REF: RANGOON 1025 
 
Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.5 (B,D) 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  The SPDC is moving forward with its 
country-wide militia training program, particularly in the 
capital city of Rangoon (reftel).  In early September, 
ward-level Peace and Development Council bosses in Rangoon 
began the process of ordering individual families to provide 
one person and 5,000 kyat (5 USD) for a 45-day training 
session.  The SPDC is using this stepped-up militia training 
partly as a psy-ops campaign to keep the population off 
balance and focused toward an unidentified "external threat," 
and partly to develop an auxiliary force of the riot police 
and regular military.  Either way, militia service is an 
additional, and unwelcome, burden on an already beleaguered 
population.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (C) Since the beginning of September, ward-level SPDC 
councils throughout Rangoon have circulated letters to all 
families notifying them that they are ordered to provide one 
person from the family between 18 to 60 years of age to 
attend compulsory 45-day militia training.  Each person 
enrolling must pay 5,000 kyat (roughly 5 USD) for uniforms 
and equipment, which is around two week's salary for an 
average laborer in Rangoon.  Families not able to send a 
delegate are required to pay 1,500 kyat a day for 45 days, 
with 500 kyat going to a "volunteer" who takes their place, 
and 1,000 kyat going to the local SPDC fund.  This scheme 
should also allow wealthier families to buy their way out of 
the requirement, while at the same time padding SPDC coffers. 
 Less-wealthy families are tending to send an older, near 
retirement-age person to the training in order not to lose 
the income of younger wage earners still in their prime. 
 
3.  (SBU) In addition to militia training for civilians, riot 
police instructors are on a daily training regimen in 
downtown ministry buildings to train civil servants in riot 
control tactics.  Local police and public service members are 
provided with refresher and advanced courses in civil 
defense, light arms use, riot control, surveillance, 
communications relay, and property defense.  Emboffs have 
observed militia training in recent weeks, including basic 
military drill instruction for civil servants on the upper 
floors of two ministry buildings in downtown Rangoon.  In 
addition, high-level staff members are reportedly being given 
weapons training. 
 
4.  (C) COMMENT: The SPDC officially says the militia 
training is to fend off an "external attack," but it is also 
perceived publicly as an attempt by the regime to distract 
the population from their worsening economic situation. 
Regardless of the motives, militia training is another 
unwelcome SPDC burden for those forced to participate and a 
potentially lethal weapon for use in suppressing opposition 
to the regime.  END COMMENT. 
Martinez