| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (45 min. 8 sec.) ; 271395795 bytes |
| Summary |
"The Burmese government will go on the rampage if it gets the nuclear weapon. They will regard no one as human beings." - Sai Thein Win, Burmese army defectorBurma has long been regarded as a pariah state but now comes fears that the military junta is trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons.In Burma's Nuclear Ambitions, a Cutting Edge special five years in the making, see the top-secret photos, documents and blueprints that have convinced Western experts that Rangoon is on the path to nuclear weaponry.Much of the information comes from Sai Thein Win, once deputy commander of a secret Burmese military facility. He'd been feeding information to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a media organisation operating in exile, when he sensed he was being watched. And so Sai defects, arriving in Thailand safe and well, yet disillusioned with his homeland."I love my uniform but I feel shameful to wear that uniform," Sai Thein Win tells the camera. "There is no honour for me to be a soldier in Burma."Sai's eyewitness testimony, along with statements from other military personnel still in Burma, is compelling. It reveals a paranoid junta, building a massive network of tunnels across the country, an underground command centre and safe haven for senior officers, should the US or any other country strike.Explosion-proof and protected against atomic, chemical and biological attack, it's estimated the tunnel project is costing $US3.5-billion, in a country that spends very little on health and welfare, and where one in every three children is malnourished.And then there's the weaponry. Burma's Nuclear Ambitions claims that Rangoon is developing machinery to enrich uranium, with help from the North Koreans."They really want to build a bomb - that's their main objective," says Sai.The experts agree Burma is a long way from achieving this goal, but warn that the threat must be taken seriously. "It could mean possibly the beginning of a new arms race in the region," says Burma analyst Bertil Lintner. (From the UK, in English and Burmese, English subtitles) (Documentary) PG CC WS |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-08-01 at 21:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: PG |
| Subject |
Bunkers (Fortification)
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International relations -- Research.
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Nuclear arms control.
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Tunnels -- Design and construction.
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Weapons of mass destruction -- Social aspects.
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Myanmar.
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Streaming video
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| Author |
Campbell, Kurt, contributor
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Forden, Geoffrey, contributor
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Htut, Aung Lin, contributor
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Kelley, Robert, contributor
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Lintner, Bertil, contributor
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Noe, Myat, contributor
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Tint, Soe, contributor
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Williams, Evan, director
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Win, Sai Thein, contributor
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