Burma (Myanmar)
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 254-256 |
Page 254
Official country name: Union of Burma
Capital: Rangoon (known by the country's government as Yangon)
Geographic description: Country in Southeast Asia extending 800 miles from China to Malaysia; bordered by India and Bangladesh on the west and China, Lagos, and Thailand on the east
Population: 42,909,464 (est. 2005)
The Myanmar Police Force (MPF) traces its origins to the colonial days when the British set up a Western-style police force to establish law and order among the different principalities that made up the country. The principal units of this police administration were the Burma Police Service, with several special units, such as the Criminal Investigation Department and Special Intelligence Department.
Until 1967 the police forces were subordinate to the army, and relations between the two were strained. Major police grievances were the imposition of army regulations, low supply priorities compared with the military and alleged lack of army support to outlying police posts during insurgent attacks. After becoming independent of the army in 1967, police morale improved, and personnel received better pay scales and equipment.
The MPF is the successor to the Burma Police. It is organized under the Ministry of Home Affairs and consists of the Civil Police and the Yangon City Police. Although organizationally independent of the army, the military continue to dominate the upper echelons of the police force. The general headquarters is in Yangon under a director general (with the rank of a major general), assisted by a deputy director general. Often, the director general is a senior army officer, and army officers hold most of the other senior posts. The director general reports directly to the minister of home affairs. The Police Council made up of ranking police, army, and cabinet officials is the senior policymaking body.
The average city police headquarters is housed in a frame building enclosed by a fence or barbed wire, and most offers basic facilities for administration, housing, and supply storage. Most rural posts are strictly utilitarian, generally consisting of a rustic fortlike compound, closely guarded and surrounded by barbed wire. Rural posts are bases of operation for fixed guard posts and area-surveillance patrols.
Page 255
The Yangon headquarters has two special departments and two principal staff sections: the Supply and Finance Section and the Administrative and Training Section. There is no separate operations directorate; rather, the chain of command runs directly from the office of the director general to the subordinate units in the field.
Two special units are the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Special...
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