Burma: Tatmadaw 'Using Australian Radio Technology'

By WAI MOE

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 Burma's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, are using Australian radio technology despite a Canberra arms embargo, a Sydney-based newspaper reported on Tuesday. At least 50 high frequency radio sets supplied by the Perth company Barrett Communications Pty Ltd are being used at the Tatmadawheadquarters in Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital, and by three regional military commands in central, eastern and north-eastern Burma, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. 2050 HF radio set Barrett Communications confirmed to the newspaper that it has sold 50 radio sets to Burma, although it denied that they were being used by the Burmese military. The company's Web site says the 2050 HF radio set is designed for civilian use in the harshest conditions—in base, mobile and man-pack operations, offering voice security, including frequency hopping and secure calls, telephone interconnect systems as well as email and data communication systems. It's also quite advanced in countering interception and decoding.  The Sydney newspaper quoted Prof Desmond Ball, a Burma military expert at the Australian National University, as saying the Tatmadaw was using the radio sets. "Radio stations that are monitoring Burmese HF communications began detecting extensive use of these through the course of 2009 by the military at the highest command level, from the capital, Naypyidaw, to at least three of the regional commands," Ball toldThe Sydney Morning Herald. The three regional commands are in areas of high tension because of the regime's plan to convert ethnic armed groups into border guards. In August, the junta launched an offensive against the Kokang armed group in northeastern Burma, causing at least 37,000 refugees to flee to neighboring China. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the Tatmadaw of multiple human rights violations, including rape, forced relocation, forced labor and the destruction of villages during military operations and state projects.     Australia has long enforced an embargo on the delivery of arms to Burma, and financial sanctions were added in 2007. "Australia has a long-standing ban on defense exports to Burma," says Canberra's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in its Web site.  According to Burma military experts, between 1948 and1988, the Tatmadaw took delivery of signal intelligence items from Japan, West Germany, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, the UK and the US. After the military coup in 1988, the Tatmadaw received radio equipment from China, Israel, South Africa and Singapore. The Burma military is also reported to be receiving information technical assistance and training from India, Malaysia and Singapore. Experts say the Tatmadaw has the capacity to intercept radio traffic of ethnic groups on the border, telecommunications in Rangoon and Mandalay as well as foreign signals intelligence. The Tatmadaw's signals intelligence falls within the junta's military modernization program.   "With the expansion of the Tatmadaw since 1990, the signal corps was also expanded," Burmese military expert Maung Aung Myoe wrote in his publication "Building theTatmadaw." "Now, at least, one signal battalion is under every regional command and LIDs [light infantry divisions] and MOCs [military operation commands] have signal companies," he said. Source: http://bit.ly/8zQQxs Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia