Burma’s Nuclear Ambitions: Are natural gas sales funding Burma’s secret nuclear program?

http://www.earthrights.org/campaigns/burma-s-nuclear-ambitions-are-natural-gas-sales-funding-burma-s-secret-nuclear-program

Burma’s Nuclear Ambitions: Are natural gas sales funding Burma’s secret nuclear program?
Thu, 06/24/2010 - 17:27Campaigns

On Tuesday June 22, Paul Donowitz from EarthRights International and Robert Kelley, former Director for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spoke at the National Endowment for Democracy on recent revelations that Burma may be pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program.

Co-author of the recent exposé with the Democratic Voice of Burma, aired on Aljazeera, Mr. Kelley presented photographic evidence and other top-secret material smuggled out of Burma by defecting army Major Sai Thein Win, a former deputy commander of a top-secret military factory at a town called Myaing. Before escaping Burma, Sai Thein Win collected thousands of files detailing a secret program by Burma’s ruling generals to build nuclear weapons which were then analyzed by Mr. Kelley in his report.

Kelley explained that Burma’s nuclear program appears both rudimentary and nascent, with scientists apparently experimenting with laser isotope separation and gas centrifuge technology for uranium enrichment. Kelley concluded that, while very serious and grounds for international concern, Burma’s nuclear weapons program is still years from being capable of producing a weapon.

In his remarks, Paul Donowitz, ERI’s Campaign Director, examined how Burma, one of the poorest countries in Asia, has been able to finance their alleged nuclear program through natural gas sales from the Yadana and Yetagun projects to Thailand. Donowitz examined recent reports from ERI that billions in gas sales to the Burmese junta never enters Burma, instead remaining in off-shore accounts in Singapore, Dubai and possibly elsewhere. These foreign exchange reserves provide the military junta with much needed US dollars allowing them to purchase nuclear technology, along with other unneeded and harmful purchases, including the recent acquisition of new MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia purchased in December 2009 for approximately $US570 million, a new capital city, Naypyidaw, offensive weapons from China used against their own people.

Donowitz went on to discuss recent efforts to persuade foreign oil companies operating in Burma, including Chevron (US), Total (France), and PTTEP (Thailand), to disclose their payments to the Burmese junta, and the companies refusal to disclose this information.