Professor Desmond Ball, as seen on the Thai-Burma border. (Photo: Phil Thornton)
For the past 20 years Professor Ball, an Australian, spent much of his time among Burma’s ethnic people and armed groups. His books include The Ties That Bind, Burma’s Military Secrets and The Boys in Black, about Thailand’s paramilitary border guards. Here we reprise an interview he conducted with The Irrawaddy in 2004.
Question: How has the political and strategic climate changed since you first starting working on Burma?
Answer: A number of changes. The first is the growth and the strengthening of the Tatmadaw itself since 1989, when the first …read more
Source: The Irrawaddy
