Short Nuclear Activ A 100604

Final 25 May 20101

Nuclear Activities in Burma [short version]

Robert E. Kelley

1

Ali Fowle

2

Democratic Voice of Burma ©

May 25 2010

1

Consultant to the Democratic Voice of Burma

2

Editor and Research Assistant, DVB

Final 25 May 20102

Nuclear Activities in Burma [short version]

Introduction

A remarkable individual has come out of Burma to describe nuclear-related activities inthat secretive country. The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a non-profitbroadcasting organization, has interviewed this man at length and is presenting hisevidence here for all to see. His name is Sai Thein Win, and until recently he was amajor in the Burmese army. He was trained in Burma as a defense engineer, and later inRussia as a missile expert. He returned to Burma to work in special factories, built tohouse modern European machining tools, to build prototypes for missile and nuclearactivities.Sai brought with him some documents and color photographs of equipment built in thesefactories. DVB is taking the extraordinary step of publishing some of these photos for allto see on the worldwide web. DVB has arranged with experts to analyze what they havediscovered. Others will no doubt, want to weigh in and add their conclusions. No doubt,there will be detractors who do not agree with the analysis and our conclusion that theseobjects are designed for use in a nuclear weapons development program. We invite theircriticism and hope that any additional analysis will eventually reinforce our view thatBurma is engaged in activities that are prohibited under international agreements.DVB has hundreds of other photos taken in Burma in closed facilities. They have manyother information sources and documents as well. They provide background informationfor the very specific information Sai is providing.In the last two years certain “laptop documents” have surfaced that purport to show thatIran is engaged in a clandestine nuclear program. The origin of these documents is notclear but they have generated a huge international debate over Iran’s intentions. TheBurmese documents and photographs brought by Sai are much closer to the originalsource materials and the route of their disclosure is perfectly clear. The debate over thesedocuments should be interesting in the nonproliferation community.

Who is Sai Thein Win?

Sai was a major in the Burmese army. He saw a documentary program aired by the DVBabout special factories in Burma that had been built by the regime to make componentsfor Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). He worked in two of these factories and feltthere was more that needed to be conveyed outside Burma. Sai came out to Thailand totell the world what he has seen and what he was asked to do. What he has to say adds tothe testimony of many other Burmese defectors, but he supplements it with many colorphotos of the buildings and what they are building inside them. In addition he can

Final 25 May 20103describe the special demonstrations he attended and can name the people and placesassociated with the Burmese nuclear program that he visited.Sai Thein Win reminds us of Mordecai Vanunu, an Israeli technician at the Dimonanuclear site in the Negev desert. Vanunu took many photographs of activities in Israelthat were allegedly related to nuclear fuel cycle and weapons development. These photoswere published in the Sunday Times in London in 1986. They purportedly showednuclear weapons activities in Israel at the time. Israel has never confirmed that theimages were taken in their facilities; much less that Israel even has a nuclear weaponsprogram. But Vanunu was abducted, tried in an Israeli court and sentenced to manyyears in prison for divulging state secrets. Sai is providing similar information.

Figure 1. Sai Thein Win holding an impeller for a ballistic missile engine .He designed the programto manufacture it on CNC machines from Europe

What is the Program that Sai Describes?

Sai tells us that he was tasked to make prototype components for missile and nuclearprograms. He is an experienced mechanical engineer and he is capable of describingmachining operations very accurately.

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