The Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs (OCMSA) (တပ်မတော် စစ်ဘက်ရေးရာ လုံခြုံရေးအရာရှိချုပ်ရုံး), commonly referred to by its Burmese acronym Sa Ya Pha (စရဖ), is the military intelligence agency of the Myanmar Armed Forces, tasked with intelligence gathering. It was created to replace 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]
- ^ 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.