Myanmar blames dissidents for bomb found in capital

Mon May 25, 2009 2:26am EDT

YANGON May 25 (Reuters) - Army-ruled Myanmar blamed dissidents on Monday for planting a bomb on a train in the country's new capital and urged people to stay alert for more "subversive acts".

The bomb, hidden in a lavatory on the train, was defused on Sunday in Naypyidaw, about 240 miles north of the former capital Yangon, the state-run New Light of Myanmar said.

It said "terrorists-cum-insurgents are resorting to various means to commit bomb blasts in such cities like Naypyidaw, Yangon and Mandalay to provoke public panic and casualties of the people". It accused the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), a group formed after the bloody suppression of student-led protests in 1988, of planning "subversive acts" in Yangon's Insein Township.

The newspaper said the ABSDF had formed a new Committee for Promoting People Activities (CPPA), which planned to hang anti-junta posters around Insein market and "sent two bombers into the nation for destructive acts".

The market is close to Insein Central Prison where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial, accused of violating her house arrest after allowing an uninvited American intruder to stay in her home. [nLO456979]

Security has been tight around the prison and market since the trial began on May 18. Critics call the trial a sham to keep the Nobel Peace laureate in detention during elections next year.

Bomb explosions are fairly common in Myanmar and the military, which has ruled for nearly half a century, usually puts the blame on dissident groups, pro-democracy activists or ethnic rebels fighting for greater autonomy. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Alex Richardson)



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