Published on May 08, 2005

Junta blames rebels for explosions that killed 11; Thai plane to evacuate nationals attending trade fair

Burma’s military government said at least 11 people were killed

in three bomb explosions that rocked the capital yesterday, but witnesses said dozens of people had died in the unprecedented attacks.

The near-simultaneous mid-afternoon blasts targeted two packed upscale shopping centres, the Dagon and Junction Eight, and the downtown Yangon Trade Centre in the worst attacks since the junta took power 40 years

ago.

State radio and officials at two Rangoon hospitals confirmed

that 11 people had died. The radio station said 163 people were injured, while Yangon General Hospital reported more than 200 hurt.

One of the bombs went off at the Yangon Convention Centre, where the Export Promotion Department was holding a Thai trade show.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday he had ordered a C-130 cargo plane to bring home Thai citizens participating in the trade show.

“I have assigned [deputy prime minister] Surakiart Sathirathai to coordinate with the Burmese foreign ministry to collect Thai nationals, who are now under the supervision of the Burmese government,” Thaksin said.

The Thai military plane will leave today to bring home the more than 200 Thais who were participating in the trade fair, he said.

The bomb at the Yangon Trade Centre exploded in front of a stage where models were showcasing Thai beauty products.

No Thai nationals were killed

or injured, Deputy Commerce Minister Suriya Lapwisuthisin said, but a security guard reportedly saw some Thais get hurt when people stampeded out of the hall.

Chantra Purnariksha, director-general of the Export Promotion Department, stressed that the explosions had nothing to do with Thailand.

Burma’s ruling junta blamed three ethnic rebel armies and an exile pro-democracy group for the deadly bomb blasts, calling the perpetrators “terrorists” who were acting “with the objective of disrupting stability and tranquillity”, state television reported.

The rebel Karen National Union, the Shan State Army-South, and the Karenni National Progressive Party, as well as a government-in-exile known as the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma were fingered by authorities, state television said.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosions.

“We cannot say how many people are dead, but we have received about 200 injured people,” an emergency-services official at Yangon General Hospital said.

“I counted as many as 20 people dead, some of them with their heads missing and their limbs missing,” a witness who survived the blast at the upscale Dagon shopping centre in central Rangoon said.

A witness at a second blast site, at Junction 8 shopping cen-tre 13 kilometres north of the city centre, said she had count-ed “at least 40 bodies being brought out of the building”, where two bombs exploded at about 3pm.

A survivor of the Dagon blast recalled panicked efforts to escape the building after the blast.

Burma has seen numerous small and medium-sized bomb attacks since late last year.

Agencies, The Nation

Rangoon

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