Burma's generals move to the middle of nowhere

"It's like something out of a crazy movie," said a Rangoon resident who watched the start of the bizarre procession of hundreds of trucks and buses out of the capital, winding its way nearly four hundred kilometres north of the capital to Pyinmana in central Burma.

The first bureaucrats to arrive at the new administrative centre were dismayed. "There's no water, no electricity and no windows or doors fitted in the living quarters," a senior government official told his family by phone. "I have to sleep in my office," he said in tears.

"There is nothing to eat, drink and nothing to buy. Just nothing," another civil servant told his wife. "My boss even told me that he now understands what hell is," he added.

For months Rangoon had been rife with rumours that the country's military rulers were planning to retreat to the hills in central Burma because of fears of a foreign invasion from the sea.

At exactly 6:37 am on November 6 the first convoy left Rangoon on its six hour journey north. Hundreds of single men under the age of fifty from eleven ministries, including the government's Central Bureau of Statistics, were the first to be relocated. Women will be moved in a subsequent phase of the relocation.

Each morning since then another convey of civil servants has left for their destination in the hills. All Burma's government administration will be moved by the end of the year. The government workers' families will then be moved. Each ministry will have a school attached, a Burmese businessman involved in the construction of the complex told Inter Press Service (IPS).

At the end of this mass relocation, Burma's government administration and military headquarters will have been shifted out of Rangoon. According to the blue-prints for the new complex, it is actually going to replace Rangoon as the country's capital.

"This is typical of Than Shwe's pretensions to be the new Burmese monarch. Like all the Burmese kings before him he is building a new palace-capital for posterity," according to a senior Burmese analyst, Win Min based in Thailand.

The reported name for the country's new centre of government is Nay Pyi Daw, according to diplomats in Rangoon. It is a monarchist term meaning the place of the King.

The massive complex being built at Pyinmana will house the military war office, all government ministries and a new parliament, according to a Burmese government official who has seen the blue-prints. The whole area is more than a hundred kilometres square.

Mansions for the senior generals, government offices and national headquarters for the country's ethnic groups and the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) are also being built.

Bunkers, tunnels, a large military hospital, apartments, a huge airstrip and a golf course are being built according to eye-witnesses. Two international standard hotels and two large supermarkets are also being constructed, according to an architect involved in the project.

The creation of the new capital is primarily the idea of the top General Than Shwe. The plans have been in the pipeline for several years now and building started on it more than two years ago. "The planned retreat is essentially strategic," said an Asian diplomat who regularly deals with Rangoon.

The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 reinforced the top general's fear that the Washington might attack Burma, according to analysts. Burma's military strategists have long argued that the country's defences were vulnerable to an attack from the sea.

Burma's top generals have always suffered from a siege mentality. "Than Shwe has a bunker mentality," according to the Burmese analyst, Win Min. "But the motive behind this move is to make sure the military is in a better strategic position to control the regional commanders, the ethnic rebel groups in the border areas, the future parliament and combat social unrest throughout the country," he added.

Foreign embassies are likely to have to follow the Burmese government when they are finally transplanted into the hills.

"Administrative and office buildings, as well as living quarters for more than five thousand people have been completed," one of the builders working on the complex told IPS.

More than thirty building companies are taking part in the construction. Each building company has been given a specific project within the overall plans, according to a construction contractor who is building a residential block.

The whole project is costing millions of dollars, according to a building contractor involved in the project. "It's an open budget -- no expense is being spared," he said. A sergeant in charge of overseeing a part of the construction can commission work worth a 100 million kyat [ten thousand dollars] without referring it to his superiors, he added.

Some buildings have been torn down and rebuilt at least three times because the commander in charge was not happy with the finished work when he saw it. "These people are so ignorant they cannot read the architectural plans; they can only decide when they see it constructed," the builder said.

But the move may create some significant unexpected consequences the top general had not anticipated. It is likely fuel the simmering resentment within the government bureaucracy. Many senior civil servants have taken early retirement in the past few months, including the director general of the labour ministry and senior members of the foreign ministry.

Many more are now expected to retire or resign. But they may not be allowed to, a western diplomat in Rangoon said. The government has enough space to hold any run away civil servants, the Maung Oo warned. The authorities plan to hunt them down just as do for army and police deserters, according to a source inside the interior ministry.

Government ministers have also been dismayed at the lack of consultation and the suddenness of the shift to Pyinmana. "Nobody agreed to this move, I don't think even General Maung Aye, but we all just shut our mouths," a senior military officer confided.

Already there is acute confusion with no one able to get import or export licences. Burmese citizens waiting to pick up their passports suddenly founded the office closed and moved four kilometres away. Prices of consumes goods, already soaring because of the recent ten fold increase in petrol prices, are set to increase further, according to a source in the Central Bank.

"The whole thing is absurd. The generals have made another major blunder," said a Burmese businessman. Discontent with Burma's military rulers is bound to swell, but as yet there are no signs of the anger which brought thousands of civil servants, monks and students onto the streets to topple the government of General Ne Win nearly eighteen years ago.

Larry Jagan was the BBC World Service's News and Current Affairs Editor for Asia and the Pacific for more than 10 years. He is an East Asia specialist and has covered Burma for more than 20 years.