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Thursday January 17, 4:04 PMBus conductor killed in Myanmar bombing: state media
The bus was heading early Wednesday to the economic hub Yangon from the town of Kyaukkyi, in a region where ethnic Karen rebels are active. The vehicle had stopped to let the passengers have breakfast in Bago township, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) northeast of the former capital, when the bomb exploded and killed the conductor, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Lwin Soe, 35, was the only victim, and authorities were still trying to determine when the bomb had been planted, the paper said. He was the third person to die in less than a week as a number of small bombings has rattled the country. Two women were killed at railway stations in new capital Naypyidaw and Yangon on Friday and Sunday, while a suspected bomber died in a blast in Bago Saturday. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the government has blamed the Karen National Union (KNU), an armed ethnic rebel group battling the junta, for one of the recent bombings. Small blasts rattle Myanmar every few months, but the latest attacks appear to be a coordinated attempt to tarnish the image of the military government, Thailand-based analyst Win Min said. The military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, often justifies its grip on power by citing the nation's decades-long battles with a score of ethnic armed groups around the country, he noted. "This is a clear sign that their security measures are not really good enough. This is an embarrassment for the government," he said. "They are a military government, and even if they cannot provide good social measures, at least they could provide security for the people," he added. The dry season, which runs from November until May, usually sees fierce fighting between the KNU and the regime, as both sides take advantage of the weather to move their forces. Eleven people were killed last month in ambushes on two passenger buses, in attacks the government blamed on the KNU. For their part, the KNU in December accused the junta of waging a "genocidal war" against Karen civilians. Myanmar has signed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups. The Karen are one of the few yet to sign a deal. But mistrust of the government in the former Burma runs so high that many people believe the military may have staged the bombings itself, simply to sow fear among the population while demonising its opponents, analyst Aung Naing Oo said. "There has never been an admission by any group" claiming responsibility, he said. "That leaves open speculation -- who has the capacity, who has the intention to do it. In Burma, most of the people would say, it's the military," Aung Naing Oo added. |
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