| Submit your comments on this article | |
| India-Pakistan | |
| 2006-05-04 | |
| BANGKOK, May 4, 2006 (AFP) - Myanmar's military rulers stepped up the pressure on political rivals and rebels Thursday, making new accusations of "terrorist" plots by pro-democracy dissidents and insurgents. Official media accused what it termed an alliance of ethnic rebels, former student leaders and exiled dissidents of sending more than 20 bombers into the country with plans to blow up targets in Yangon, the central city of Mandalay and the eastern town of Mawlamyine. "The bombers are planning to commit terrorist acts in harmony with the above-ground politicians," the official New Light of Myanmar said. Junta leaders often refer to the pro-democracy National League for Democracy, led by detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as "above-ground politicians".
The latest claims came one week after the junta said it had compiled evidence linking Aung San Suu Kyi's party to terrorist groups, and as the military pursued a months-long offensive against Karen rebels in the east. Colonel Nerdah Mya, a leader of the Karen National Union, said Myanmar forces had advanced to within one kilometer (half-mile) from one of their bases near the Thai border, just across from the Mae La refugee camp. Some 1,000 people had arrived at the border, but Nerdah Mya estimated that 2,000 more are displaced inside the country. Other groups have estimated the number of displaced as high as 10,000. More than 140,000 refugees live in nine refugee camps on the Thai side of the border, set up since Myanmar's troops overran most traditional ethnic minority lands in the eastern mountainous region in the 1980s. The KNU, which is waging one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, called for ceasefire talks on Wednesday. Nerdah Mya said that officially, both sides are open for talks, but the junta has made no moves to resume ceasefire negotiations that fell apart two years ago. "The door on both sides is open, but no body answers. You can't really count on a ceasefire agreement," he told AFP by telephone. Aung Naing Oo, an exiled Myanmar observer in Thailand, said the fighting and the latest terrorist claims were part of a broad crackdown by the military on all of its rivals. "The military thinks it's strong and that it can get all these groups," he told AFP in Bangkok. "We can see the whole pattern, covering not only armed opposition groups, but also NLD. It's more a general crackdown." The NLD on Tuesday accused the junta of trying to intimidate dozens of its members into resigning. The NLD, which denounces violence, won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the military-led government has never allowed it to govern. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for more than 10 of the last 17 years. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Waiting breathlessly for M. George Clooney's pontifications. |
| Posted by: Fordesque 2006-05-04 19:11 |