WikiLeaks: Junta ‘might go nuclear for US attention’

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Mizzima

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Members of Burmese dictator Than Shwe’s entourage during a 2004 trip to New Delhi, told the Indian government that they “wondered whether they would have to ‘go nuclear’ to get US attention”, a November 2004 American diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reveals.

The memo written by staff at the US embassy in Delhi quotes extensively from information relayed to the Americans from a senior Indian diplomat about Than Shwe’s October 2004 trip to the Indian capital. This is the latest of several leaked American cables released to mention Burma’s rumoured nuclear programme.

The diplomat, Dr. Mitra Vasisht, was assigned to the Southeast Asia section of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and told her American counterparts that Than Shwe was accompanied by the wives of two top generals Thura Shwe Man and Soe Win. The reclusive dictator’s trip came weeks after Than Shwe had orchestrated the arrest of his biggest rival in Burma’s ruling junta, Military Affairs Intelligence chief Khin Nyunt.

According to the cable, Vasisht suggested that the wives “may have been used as ‘hostages’ to ensure tranquility among the generals in Rangoon during Than Shwe’s absence”.

Read more: http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/4690-wikileaks-junta-might-go-nuclear-for-us-attention.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Ah! The millenia old tradition of taking hostages to insure obedience!

Our modern world.

[struggle4progress]

2. This is six year old gossip: an American diplomat heard from an Indian diplomat that

somebody in the Burmese entourage said in 2004 ...