The Tatmadaw Exposed

Burma’s army leaders want to build a modern army with sophisticated weapons and jet fighters. However, when the country faced a major natural disaster last month, these same leaders were unable to mobilize troops to conduct a relief mission in the Irrawaddy delta, much less send jets, helicopters and navy ships to aid victims of Cyclone Nargis.

When the cyclone slammed into the delta and southern Burma on May 2-3, the army was all but invisible for the first few days, as orders from the top leadership weren’t forthcoming.

In the wake of the greatest natural disaster to hit Burma in living memory, Burma’s 400,000 soldiers remained in their barracks or on the frontlines of the regime’s dirty war against ethnic insurgents.

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