Myanmar’s ruling military junta has accused exiled anti-government groups of trying to create panic in the country and blamed them for a recent blast in Yangon, state-run media said Saturday.
Myanmar’s junta blames dissidents for blast
An explosion Thursday at a guest house in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, occurred when a man “was allegedly making a time-bomb in his room when it went off,” the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The man was the blast’s only fatality.
“Destructive elements and terrorist rebels from inside and outside the country are trying to create panic and disrupt tranquility,” said the newspaper, a mouthpiece for the junta. It said the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front and another dissident group were believed to have links to the blast.
A spokesman for the front could not immediately be reached for comment. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
Authorities who searched the room found dynamite, a detonator, batteries, two clocks, a watch, steel ball bearings and a cell phone, the newspaper said.
Terrorism is unusual in military-ruled Myanmar. The government generally blames rare attacks on opponents of the regime or ethnic rebel groups seeking autonomy.
The students’ front was formed in 1988, after the junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon and a number of student activists fled to eastern jungle areas and across the Thai border, where ethnic minority groups gave them safe haven. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/28/asia/AS-Myanmar-Blast.php
