By Luke Hunt
If the Myanmar government truly has nothing to hide, it should welcome a UN inquiry.
Much fuss has justifiably been made about five journalists locked up in Myanmar after a story was published alleging the military-controlled government has built a chemical weapons factory in Pauk, a township in the country’s center.
The government has said the 12-square kilometer facility is a defense ministry factory but it also says no chemical weapons are being produced there. Despite this, four journalists and a chief executive of the weekly Yangon-based Unity Journal were arrested under state secrecy laws.
Given Myanmar’s delicate position amid normalization efforts within the international system, the gravity of the claims, suspicions that Myanmar’s generals hold nuclear capability ambitions and the global reaction to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, perhaps an independent observer from the United Nations should take a look.
According to reports, work on the factory began in 2009. Since then, more than 3,000 acres of land have been confiscated from farmers and locals, who claim that chemical weapons were being produced at the site. They also contend that the complex is connected by more than 330 meters of tunnels.
There is no independent verification of the claims.
Read the full story at The Diplomat