Myanmar arrests rebel over deadly bombing
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
MYANMAR has arrested an ethnic rebel fighter over the bombing of a video cafe that left two dead, state media said yesterday, warning that insurgents could be plotting more attacks.
Saw Ya Ko, a member of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), was arrested over the September 11 blast that killed a 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman in the Bago region, 100km (60 miles) northeast of Yangon, the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
"Saw Ya Ko confessed that he detonated two bombs in the video lounge," the newspaper reported, adding that he had also confessed to placing a bomb in a grocery. It was defused.
Video cafes, where people can watch videos on a TV, are common in villages where most people do not have electricity or their own television.
The newspaper said five other KNU fighters and two exiled student groups had entered the country on a mission to plant more bombs around the main city of Yangon.
"If there is any suspicious-looking person, the people are to inform the authorities concerned about it in order to thwart any destructive acts," the daily said.
Military-ruled Myanmar has been hit by a spate of explosions recently and authorities are probing whether a blast that ripped through the back of a bus in Yangon last week, injuring three passengers, was caused by a bomb.
Myanmar's ruling junta recently accused two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing pro-government offices in July.
It was the first time the junta had accused NLD members of a bomb attack - previous blasts had been blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
The NLD won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the junta never allowed it to take office and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost constantly since.
Myanamar has suffered decades of armed rebellion along its borders, and no government has controlled all of the nation's territory.
The KNU is the oldest of the rebel groups, battling the government for six decades.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, justifying its grip on power by claiming the need to fend off the rebels.
AFP
Saw Ya Ko, a member of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), was arrested over the September 11 blast that killed a 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman in the Bago region, 100km (60 miles) northeast of Yangon, the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
"Saw Ya Ko confessed that he detonated two bombs in the video lounge," the newspaper reported, adding that he had also confessed to placing a bomb in a grocery. It was defused.
Video cafes, where people can watch videos on a TV, are common in villages where most people do not have electricity or their own television.
The newspaper said five other KNU fighters and two exiled student groups had entered the country on a mission to plant more bombs around the main city of Yangon.
"If there is any suspicious-looking person, the people are to inform the authorities concerned about it in order to thwart any destructive acts," the daily said.
Military-ruled Myanmar has been hit by a spate of explosions recently and authorities are probing whether a blast that ripped through the back of a bus in Yangon last week, injuring three passengers, was caused by a bomb.
Myanmar's ruling junta recently accused two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing pro-government offices in July.
It was the first time the junta had accused NLD members of a bomb attack - previous blasts had been blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
The NLD won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the junta never allowed it to take office and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost constantly since.
Myanamar has suffered decades of armed rebellion along its borders, and no government has controlled all of the nation's territory.
The KNU is the oldest of the rebel groups, battling the government for six decades.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, justifying its grip on power by claiming the need to fend off the rebels.
AFP
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