Burma | Burma Center Prague

by Roman Deckert, Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security (BITS)

When recently the peaceful protests in Burma – re-named by the junta in Myanmar ("strong and fast") - were brutally suppressed, it was especially one picture that caused worldwide horror: the Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai being shot dead by a soldier. The assault rifle that fired the bullet looks like a G3 of Heckler & Koch (H&K), but might also be FAL of the Belgian producer FN Herstal. Either way there is a German connection: according to the well-informed Jane’s Infantry the Burmese army still uses the G3, which used to be the standard weapon No. 1 until a few years ago, as well as MG3 machine guns of Rheinmetall regularly. The FAL, according to the late grand expert on small arms Edward Ezell, had once been introduced to Burma from surplus stocks of the West German Bundeswehr-army.

continued on the site of BITS