U.S. to invite Myanmar to joint military exercises
Thai soldiers carry national flags as they participate in the opening
ceremony of the annual joint ''Cobra Gold 2010'' (CG10) military
exercise at U-tapao airport in Rayong province in this February 1, 2010
file photo. The United States will invite Myanmar to the world's largest
multinational military field exercise, a powerful symbolic gesture
toward a military with a grim human rights record and a milestone in its
rapprochement with the West. Myanmar will be allowed to observe Cobra
Gold, which brings together more than 10,000 American and Thai military
personnel and participants from other Asian countries for joint annual
manoeuvres, officials from countries participating in the exercises told
Reuters.
Credit: Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom/Files
(Reuters) - The United States will invite Myanmar to the world's largest
multinational military field exercise, a powerful symbolic gesture
toward a military with a grim human rights record and a milestone in its
rapprochement with the West.
Myanmar will be invited to observe Cobra Gold, which brings together
thousands of American and Thai military personnel and participants from
other Asian countries for joint annual maneuvers, officials from
countries participating in the exercises told Reuters.
"This appears to be the first step on the part of the U.S. to re-engage
Myanmar militarily and to wean it away from its reliance on China," said Jan Zalewski, an analyst covering Myanmar for IHS Global Insight, a research firm.
Washington's rapprochement with Myanmar's military is part of a
carefully calibrated re-engagement under the umbrella of humanitarian
dialogue, the sources said, constituting one of the boldest rewards for
Myanmar's new semi-civilian government after 49 years of direct military
rule.
It is also seen as a first step towards U.S.-Myanmar
military-to-military ties, cut off after 1988 when soldiers opened fire
on pro-democracy protesters in a crackdown that killed or wounded
thousands and led to the house arrest of democracy champion Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Thailand, co-host of the exercises, lobbied for Myanmar's inclusion, the sources said.
It could prompt charges that Washington is moving too quickly in seeking
to rehabilitate a military accused of continued human rights violations
in ethnic regions such as Kachin State where tens of thousands of
people have been displaced in 16 months of fighting.
Refugees fled forced labor, killings, rape and torture by the Myanmar military, reported Human Rights Watch in June.
"Burma's military continues to commit war crimes and crimes against
humanity. It is shocking that the United States would invite them to
military exercises," said Mark Farmaner, director of advocacy group
Burma Campaign UK.
HISTORIC U.S. TIES
The invitation follows a visit this week by a delegation led by Michael
Posner, the U.S. State Department's top human rights official, to
Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The U.S. team
also included Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh and
other U.S. military officials.
The talks on the Myanmar side were led by Deputy Minister for Defense
Commodore Aung Thaw. Myanmar state media reported that the "two sides
held talks on levels and operations of defense institutions of Myanmar
and U.S. and exchanged views on future dialogue and bilateral
cooperation".
U.S. officials in Bangkok and Washington declined to comment.
"If there is a decision to move forward with military-to-military
operations with Burma, then we are going to be prepared to support that
the best we can," the head of U.S. Pacific Command, Navy Admiral Samuel
Locklear, told journalists in Bangkok on Tuesday.
"Nothing has been finalized," said Thanathip Sawangsan, a spokesman at
Thai Defense Ministry. He said a decision would be made at the end of
October.
The invitation is another illustration of the Obama administration's pivot this year from Iraq andAfghanistan to focus national security resources on the Asia-Pacific region.
Cobra Gold takes place in Chon Buri, a province east of Bangkok where
the United States built up a massive military presence during the
Vietnam War. It began in 1980.
Last year, about 10,000 U.S. military personnel took part, along with about 3,400 Thais. Five other countries participated — Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. And nine countries sent observers, including China.
"In the past, Myanmar has always been unhappy about this Cobra Gold,
thinking that it was directed against them and was like a step towards
invasion," said Dr Tin Maung Maung Than, a senior fellow at the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and an expert on
Myanmar's military.
Even when it was a dictatorship, Myanmar sent more officers to the
United States than to any other country. More than 1,200 officers
trained there between Myanmar's independence from Britain in 1948 and
General Ne Win's military coup in 1962, according to Maung Aung Myoe,
author of "Building the Tatmadaw: Myanmar Armed Forces since 1948."
Ne Win's coup ushered in nearly half a century of isolation and misrule,
but the United States maintained military ties as a bulwark against the
spread of communism from neighboring China.
Some 255 Myanmar officers graduated from the United States from 1980 to
1988 under the International Military Education and Training programme,
more than from any other country, said Maung Aung Myoe. The programme
was halted, and U.S. sanctions were imposed, after the junta crushed the
1988 uprising and refused to honor the results of a general election
won by Suu Kyi's party two years later.
AMERICAN REMAINS
Re-engagement began in earnest with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton's historic visit to Naypyitaw in November last year. Clinton
said she spoke with President Thein Sein about recovering the remains of
U.S. servicemen who died in Myanmar during World War Two, noting that
"the search for missing Americans once helped us repair relations with
Vietnam".
During World War Two, nearly 1,000 Americans and 600 planes were lost
over Myanmar due to bad weather and Japanese guns while flying from
India to China. About 730 Americans remain unaccounted for, according to
the U.S. Defense Department.
The Hawaii-based unit Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) ran three
missions in Myanmar before its patron, former spy chief Khin Nyunt, was
purged by ex-dictator Than Shwe in 2004. After Clinton's visit, the
United States and Myanmar governments began talks about resuming the
missions.
In August, a team of military intelligence officers from Myanmar visited
JPAC to learn about remains recovery techniques and to discuss
operations in Myanmar, said the U.S. Defense Department. JPAC's plans to
resume missions in Myanmar remain "very tentative," its media chief
Jamie Dobson told Reuters.
British efforts to re-engage with the Myanmar military have also begun.
Retired general Sir Mike Jackson, one of the British Army's most
prominent figures, met Myanmar's deputy commander-in-chief General Soe
Win in Naypyitaw on September 21. They "frankly discussed promotion of
ties" between the British and Myanmar militaries, reported the state-run
Myanmar News Agency.
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
source: Reuters
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