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Viewing cable 06RANGOON975, NAY PYI DAW UPDATE

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06RANGOON975 2006-07-12 11:05 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Rangoon
VZCZCXRO6471
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHGO #0975/01 1931105
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121105Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4801
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0997
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9769
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 4235
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1691
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3419
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 6866
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 4482
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL CALCUTTA 0821
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0823
RUDKIA/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0518
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2757
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0398
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000975 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL BM
SUBJECT: NAY PYI DAW UPDATE 
 
RANGOON 00000975  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Construction of Burma's new capital city, 
Nay Pyi Taw, continues.  Gradually foreigners are getting to 
see the under-construction city, but plans to invite all of 
the Ambassadors are still on hold pending further progress. 
The current impression is of a vast green empty space 
sparsely populated with buildings.  The layout makes no 
sense, but then the move made no sense either.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Charge used an invitation to a ceremony marking 
World Population Day on July 11 to make her first trip to the 
new capital.  The German, Philippine, Lao, and Vietnamese 
Ambassadors also attended primarily to get a first glimpse of 
the new city, along with the UNFPA, UNDP, and WFP heads of 
mission.  Most drove up the preceding day, which took eight 
hours according to the Vietnamese Ambassador.  Local 
employees of embassies have been making the trip for sometime 
now to get various permits.  The plane was full both ways, so 
plenty of other Burmese are now visiting the new capital. 
The new Singaporean and Bruneian Ambassadors became the first 
Ambassadors to present their credentials in Nay Pyi Daw in 
early June.  The outgoing Russian and British Ambassadors 
were also invited to pay farewell calls there, although the 
British Ambassador had all of her meetings, but one with the 
Planning Minister, cancelled at the last minute. 
 
3.  (SBU) The initial impression is green and empty.  Earlier 
photos were taken during the dry season; now monsoon rains 
have begun.  Since the ceremony only lasted an hour, the 
German Ambassador and Charge spent a couple of hours touring 
the new city before returning to Rangoon.  The ministries are 
scattered approximately a mile apart with vast expanses of 
now green space in between.  Since the setting is hilly, the 
view from the tops of the hills is a vast expanse of scrub 
vegetation dotted with a few buildings.  Each ministry we saw 
was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence topped with spooled 
barbed wire giving the impression of a prison.  Even though 
there are vast amounts of empty space the fences hew closely 
to the modestly-sized buildings.  The only differences we 
noted were various sizes of parking lots included inside the 
fence.  The ministry buildings we saw appear completed with 
construction work now focused on building roads to all the 
scattered sites.  Our driver pointed out a paving machine 
"made in the U.S.A." as we drove around the mostly empty 
expanse.  He also pointed out several buildings under 
construction described as the President's Office, the Mayor's 
Office, and a new temple "bigger than the Shwedagon," Burma's 
most sacred site located in Rangoon long before the British 
made it their capital. 
 
4.  (SBU) We paid an unannounced call on the Foreign Ministry 
since we were in the neighborhood.  The Foreign Minister and 
his two Deputy Ministers had not come to the office "yet," at 
10:30 in the morning.  Although taken by surprise, we had a 
pleasant chat with the Director General of Political Affairs 
Nyan Lwin and the America Desk Director Min Lwin.  Unlike the 
other ministries, it is almost completely hidden behind a 
hill from the main road, but still closely surrounded by 
prison-like fencing.  We saw a small backyard in which the 
staff had planted a kitchen garden.  Contrary to earlier 
reports of ample electricity, the electricity was off, which 
has become increasingly common according to other reports. 
We peeked into a few offices and saw long tables and some 
mostly empty bookshelves, but almost no office equipment. 
The staff appeared to be just sitting around near the open 
windows to catch a breeze.  Peering up to the second floor, 
we saw clothes hanging outside, indicating that the staff are 
still living in the Ministry building.   Nyan Lwin apologized 
for the conditions and offered his opinion that a visit by 
all the Ambassadors should wait until after the monsoon. 
 
5.  (SBU)  We saw a large housing compound of approximately 
 
RANGOON 00000975  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
30-40 four story apartment buildings painted in bright shades 
of pink, blue and green.  The housing area is located 10 
minutes from the closest ministry and 30-40 minutes from 
others.  A few apartments appeared occupied with curtains in 
the windows.  According to Min Lwin, families are now allowed 
to move to the new city.  However, he added that his family 
would not be moving since he had teenaged children in school 
in Rangoon.  Earlier complaints concerned the lack of public 
transport.  On this trip we saw old buses similar to those 
seen in Rangoon now operating.  It appeared that many 
ministries have a bus or two to ferry its employees to work. 
We saw five or six buses parked at the Commerce Ministry, 
while the Foreign Ministry had none. 
 
6.  (SBU) You have to see to comprehend the vast distances 
with the occasional relatively small building.  The airport 
is located in the midst of rice paddies and has a colorful 
new terminal building, the size of one found at small 
provincial airport in Thailand.  We detected no radar, and 
the control tower was the height of a two story building. 
From the airport to the hotel area takes about 20-30 minutes 
over rough roads (including a portion of the main 
Rangoon-Mandalay road) mostly populated by motorbikes and 
ponycarts.  To the right of the hotel area was another 
endless green space described by our driver as the diplomatic 
area.  From the hotel area to the ministry area took another 
15 minutes along a now empty road under construction.  From 
the first ministry (Home Affairs) to our destination 
Immigration and Population Ministry took another 20 minutes. 
 
7.  (SBU) We also drove into the town of Pyinmana, which is 
located quite separately from the civilian area, 
approximately 20 minutes by car.  The defense area, according 
to our driver offering to drive us there, was another 45 
minute round trip north of Pyinmana.  Pyinmana appeared 
bustling, which is understandable, but not used to 
foreigners.  Ponycarts appear to be a primary means of 
transportation followed by bicycles and motorbikes.  While 
most people smiled and said hello when we walked around, the 
headmistress of a middle school came running out distressed 
that we were taking pictures of her wooden school.  She said 
that the authorities would question her about why we were 
there.  But then she pleasantly welcomed us in English, and 
the schoolchildren followed us around grinning.  We did not 
see any obvious looking security officials anywhere during 
our freelance tour, except those present at the ceremony 
presided by SPDC Secretary 1 LTG Thein Sein. 
 
8.  (SBU) Comment:  Civil servants returning on the weekends, 
continue to report problems with water quality and bugs. 
They claim they want to resign, but are not allowed to.  The 
scattered nature of the buildings in the midst of nothing 
reinforces the sense of isolation.  Nothing gives the 
impression of workable city.  No wonder the civil servants 
are unhappy.  If you are planning to visit, make sure you 
bring a good book, because there is nothing much else to do. 
 
VILLAROSA