[Myanmar] Burma To Send Officers To Us, Thai Military Drill

Burma’s military will send two officers as observers to Cobra Gold, a major US and Thai-led multinational military exercise held in Thailand on Feb 11-12, The Bangkok Post reports. About 12,700 soldiers from Thailand, the US, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia will be involved in the annual exercise and 101 countries are sending observers. Burma will join the latter group, Thai Lt Gen Tarnchiyan Srisuwan, director of Joint Operations of the Supreme Command told the newspaper. The possible participation of Burma’s military was first reported in October and has been controversial. The powerful military ran Burma under a repressive dictatorship until 2011, while its units still remain linked to human rights abuses.