BURMA-THAI BORDER: Panic as 10 more bombs discovered

Published on Oct 18, 2002

Rangoon blames KNU; others believe splinter group behind terror campaign

Ten more bombs were found planted around the Burmese border town of Myawaddy yesterday, spreading fear among the local community and prompting town residents to nervously look through their yards for more explosive devices.

Myawaddy authorities are still searching for more explosives, they said.The 10 bombs were found in separate searches throughout the small frontier town, which sits across the river from Tak's Mae Sot district. There were no reports of any arrests.

The officials conducted the searches after two separate bombs exploded in Myawaddy on Tuesday and Wednesday. No one was injured in the blasts. The explosion on Tuesday coincided with the re-opening of the Myawaddy border checkpoint and two other gateways, which Rangoon had ordered shut in May.

The Burmese government blamed the bombings on the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), which has not yet reached a peace agreement with the junta.

"The KNU terrorist group was systematically scheming to commit terrorist acts to panic the people, to delay the flow of commodities, and to jeopardise Myanmar-Thai normalised relations," the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The KNU denied any involvement, saying its armed units don't target civilians.

Thai officials suspected that the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter group that broke away from the KNU and re-aligned with the Burmese government, might be behind the terror campaign.

They said the DKBA had benefited tremendously from the five-month-long border closing because they controlled the area where illegal crossing were carried out.

Local Burmese residents in Myawaddy, on the other hand, said the Wednesday explosion may have been caused by leftover ordinance from fighting between KNU and Burmese government troops.

The Nation

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