Myanmar junta enacts sweeping law on protection of military secrets

Myanmar’s military regime has introduced a new law aimed at shielding a broad range of military-related information from disclosure and deterring potential defections from its armed forces, regime-run media reported on Tuesday. The Military Secrets Protection Law, issued under Article 419 of the 2008 military-drafted constitution, was enacted by the junta on Monday, according to an announcement published in the junta-controlled newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar. The law prohibits former members of the military or security personnel—including the police and junta-trained militias known as Pyu Saw Htee—from joining private security firms without explicit permission from the Ministry of Defence. It also bars them from working for any armed group not established by the Myanmar military. In addition, the law tightens restrictions on the handling of classified information, including details related to military strategies, training, technologies, procedures, methods of production and installation, and other matters designated as military secrets by the junta’s ministries. This applies to all technical systems involving naval vessels, aircraft, vehicles, weapons, and other machinery used by Myanmar’s military. The junta claims the law, which criminalises the unauthorised possession, transmission, or disclosure of the sensitive information specified, is intended to protect national security by preventing such information from falling into the hands of foreign governments, international organisations, and armed groups. The law stipulates harsh penalties, including life imprisonment and even death sentences, for violators. The move comes amid mounting international pressure on the junta over its ongoing offensives targeting anti-regime armed groups, resistance fighters, and civilian populations. Since coming to power in the military coup of February 2021, the regime has introduced a number of legal measures to suppress dissent, including amendments to Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law, Electronic Transactions Law, and Official Secrets Act. Hundreds of the military’s officers have defected since the coup, with many joining the nonviolent Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule or seeking refuge in neighbouring Thailand. Several defectors told Myanmar Now that although the military had already imposed strict regulations on the use of classified information, the new law appears designed to deter soldiers from defecting by targeting their most likely destination for employment if they should leave: private security. The law also threatens heavy punishment for members of the regime’s military or civilian bureaucracy caught sharing sensitive information, an issue the junta has had to confront with growing frequency in the age of social media. “Ordinary people don’t have access to military secrets, but in a time of civil war, the military wants to send a clear message to its insiders: anyone who leaks information about leadership decisions or military operations will face severe consequences,” said a former army officer who defected from the regime in 2022.

Myanmar junta enacts sweeping law on protection of military secrets

According to defecting former officers, the apparent aim of the law is to discourage leaks from inside the junta’s bureaucracy as well as further defections from the military

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