MYANMARESE CONTINGENT : AARM GOOD MEANS OF
FOSTERING SOLIDARITY

The Commander of the Myanmarese Army Contingent, Lt.Col Thu Rain Thant Zin, said the on-going 14th ASEAN Armies Rifle Meet (AARM) being held in West Java's Cilodong area is a good means of fostering solidatity among the armies of the ASEAN nations.

Speaking to ANTARA here on Friday, Rain Thant Zin expressed happiness for being able to send his contingent to the ASEAN armies firing tournament which is held at the shooting range of the Indonesian Army's Strategic and Re-serve Command (Kostrad) in Cilodong.

"We are interested in hosting this event. We have to make enough preparations. This is because AARM is a very good means of building solidarity among us in Southeast Asia," he told ANTARA.

Thu Rain Thant Zin who arrived from Yangoon several days ago led a contingent of 43 personnel. He praised the services provided by the committee, saying that it has conducted the events based on schedule and professionally organize all categories of firing events.

He said that the AARM is basically not merely in-tended to measure the military skill of the individual army members of ASEAN but more importantly is to nurture the ASEAN brotherhood which has been bet-ter maintained so far.

Referring to services provided by the host, Thant Zin said the food is delicious and taste like the one we have at home. The dish is spicy with broth. "But the weather here is much hotter than that of Yangoon," he added.

Myanmar joined ASEAN serveral years ago after Cambodia became a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations which was formed in 1967.

In the on-going 14th AARM, Myanmar is fielding 10 shooters for rifle event, five for men's pistol branch, five for carbine and six for the authomatic ma-chine gun event.
Together with other ASEAN contingents, Myanmar on Friday fielded shooters in the qualifying round to contest the firing competiton in the men's pistol, rifle, carbine and authomatic machine gun events.