Government body local chairmen to supervise militia training

DVB ( July 20,2003 )

We have already reported that the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) has designated tomorrow, 21 July, as the day for people's militia units to start training as part of the exercises to defend the nation against foreign threat.

According to the latest news, the training course will be conducted nationwide simultaneously but it has been learned that the training course has already been started at some townships since last week.

Most people seem to be interested in the development because the training course emerged after news of the disbanding of the Kyant Phut [vernacular acronym for Union Solidarity and Development Association] group appeared just over a month ago.

However, Mandalay residents told DVB that coincidentally the chairmen of the Militia Training Course Supervisory Committees happen to be former township chairmen of the Kyant Phut group.

(BBC Monitoring service)