Tatmadaw

Tatmadaw

The Myanmar Armed Forces, officially known as Tatmadaw (Burmese: တပ်မတော်; MLCTS: tap ma. taw, ) is the military organization of Burma, also known as Myanmar. The armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defense and are composed of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Auxiliary services include Myanmar Police Force, People Militia Units and Frontier Forces, locally known as Na Sa Kha.

Currently, the draft is officially revived. In the past, all service personnel were volunteers in theory, although the government was empowered to undertake conscription if considered necessary for Myanmar's defense. In practice, it has been claimed that the Tatmadaw regularly kidnap and conscript children and use civilians as forced labour and human mine-sweepers. The Tatmadaw has been engaged in a bitter battle with ethnic insurgents, political dissidents and the narco-armies since the country gained its independence from Great Britain in 1948.

An official publication has revealed that almost one-quarter of Myanmar's new national budget will be allocated to defense. The Government Gazette reports that 1.8 trillion kyat (about $2 billion at free market rates of exchange), or 23.6% of the 2011 budget will go to defense.