Relocating

last updated 8 January 2015

Yangon, Myanmar

Myanmar’s ruling military junta announced this week it was moving the entire government from the country’s capital, Yangon, to an isolated mountain compound hundreds of miles to the north. Officials denied foreign press speculation that the junta feared a U.S. invasion, saying the move from the coast was intended to help the government develop internal regions of the country. The junta started building the compound with forced labor two years ago, after the U.S. invasion of Iraq sparked fears that Myanmar could be next. Foreign embassies were not invited to relocate. “If you need to communicate on urgent matters,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “you can send a fax.”