The Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs (OCMSA) (တပ်မတော် စစ်ဘက်ရေးရာ လုံခြုံရေးအရာရှိချုပ်ရုံး), commonly referred to by its Burmese acronym Sa Ya Pha (စရဖ),functions as the paramount military intelligence apparatus of the Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw).
The agency’s statutory purviews and operational mandates encompass the execution of clandestine and covert operations, counterinsurgency, counter-revolutionary, military counterintelligence, and military focused counterterrorism. Furthermore, its institutional responsibilities extend to political and psychological warfare operations, foreign military threat assessments, and executive protection for high-ranking military commanders at risk of assault or assassination—with particular emphasis on the Commander-in-Chief, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Joint Chief of Staff, and Minister of Defence—as well as support for irregular warfare operations. Within the defense infrastructure, the OCMSA is tasked with the protection of classified military assets and the implementation of military cybersecurity protocols. Additionally, its domestic mandate includes comprehensive surveillance and the suppression of political dissidence against the ruling regime.
The OCMSA was formally established as the successor institution to the Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence (DDSI), which was disbanded in 2004.[1]
OCMSA is charged with handling political issues, and had played a central role in monitoring the 2007 popular protests in Myanmar; coordinating widespread arrests of protesters and their interrogation. Human Rights Watch reported that as part of its interrogation process, OCMSA uses sleep deprivation and condones the beating and kicking of detainees until they are unconscious.[2]
Notable former commanders of OCMSA include Vice President Lieutenant General (Ret.) Myint Swe, Chief of General Staff (Army, Navy and Airforce) General Mya Tun Oo and Union Minister for Home Affairs Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe. As of September 2016, OCMSA is headed by Lieutenant General Soe Htut.[3] Brig.-Gen Tin Oo (no relation to Gen. Tin Oo) was trained by the CIA on the Pacific island of Saipan and went on to run one of the most feared and effective military intelligence spy networks in Asia throughout the 1970s and ’80s.[4]
Chiefs
| Office Name | Head | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Lwin | 1959–1969 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Chit Khin | 1969–1972 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Brigadier General Tin Oo | 1972–1978 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Aung Htay | 1978–1980 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Myo Aung | 1980–1982 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Kan Nyunt | 1982 – May 1983 |
| Directorate of Military Intelligence | Colonel Aung Koe | May 1983 – September 1983 |
| Directorate of Defence Service Intelligence / Office of Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI) | Lieutenant General / General Khin Nyunt | September 1983 – October 2004 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Myint Swe | 2004–2005 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Ye Myint | 2005–2010 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe | 2010–2014 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Mya Tun Oo | 2014–2016 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Soe Htut | 2016–2020 |
| Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs | Lieutenant General Ye Win Oo[5][6] | 2020−present |
See also
References
- ↑ Paing, Yan (September 9, 2014). "Burmese Military Reshuffle Sees New Security Chief Appointed". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
- ↑ "Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma". Human Rights Watch. 6 December 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ↑ Paing, Yan (September 9, 2014). "Burmese Military Reshuffle Sees New Security Chief Appointed". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2015-08-18.
- ↑ "US House Backs Measures to Sanction Myanmar's Military, Nudge Gem Sector Reform". The Irrawaddy. 2018-05-25. Retrieved 2018-07-04.
- ↑ Htet Myet Min Tun; Moe Thuzar; Michael Montesano (23 July 2021). "Min Aung Hlaing and His Generals: Data on the Military Members of Myanmar's State Administration Council Junta". ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Archived from the original on 25 July 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
- ↑ ဆန်းမိုးထွန်း (12 February 2020). "တပ်မတော် စစ်ဘက်ရေးရာ လုံခြုံရေးအရာရှိချုပ်အဖြစ် အနောက်တောင်တိုင်း စစ်ဌာနချုပ် တိုင်းမှူး ဗိုလ်ချုပ် ရဲဝင်းဦးအား ခန့်အပ်". Eleven Media Group (in Burmese). Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.