"They really want to build nuclear bombs. That's their main objective", claims army defector, Sai Thein Win. A Major in the Burmese Army, Sai was deputy commander of a secret military factory. Before leaving Burma he leaked thousands of files to an expatriate NGO, detailing the secret programme he worked on.

Fearing Western Air Strikes, Burma's military elite have carved out a nation-wide network of bunkers and tunnels to protect themselves and their budding nuclear infrastructure. "I've never seen anything like that come out of Burma before", comments long-time Burma analyst Bertil Lintner.

According to the leaked files, around $3.5 billion of state revenue has been channelled into the bunker project alone. This, in the country which spends the lowest percentage of GDP on healthcare of any government in the World. Even in the army there is discontent about the amount spent on the bunkers; "we want to do things which support people and improve their lives", a serving army engineer confides in a secret interview.

In a safe house in Thailand, Sai Thein Win unpacks the few possessions he fled the country with. Amongst them is his uniform, and photos of himself amongst the machinery: vivid proof of his frightening story. He explains that the German machinery bought for educational purposes was actually being used for Uranium enrichment, and to produce parts for warheads. Bob Kelly, former intelligence officer at Los Alamos and ex-director of the IAEA, analyses Sai's evidence: "there's no conceivable use for this for anything other than a nuclear weapons program". Geoff Forden, a military researcher at M.I.T., claims that parts shown in Sai's photographs could be used in long-range missiles, extending the threat beyond national boundaries.

Both experts believe Myanmar is years from detonating a nuclear bomb. But commentators believe these ambitions should be taken seriously. If not, "they will surprise the international community", warns Army defector Myat Noe.

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