|
|
|
|
Junta clamps down after
Yangon blasts
BANGKOK
- Myanmar's military government has stepped
up security and ordered medical workers not to
speak with reporters about three bomb blasts that
shook the capital, Yangon, over the weekend.
Eyewitness reports indicated the death toll could
spike sharply higher.
Medical workers
contacted by telephone told RFA's Myanmar service
they had been warned against disclosing anything
related to the blasts on Saturday at two upscale
supermarkets and the Yangon Convention Center,
site of a Thai trade fair. Thai officials,
meanwhile, said at least 21 people had been killed
- 10 more than the fatalities reported by the
Myanmar junta.
The Myanmar government
routinely restricts information on sensitive
incidents such as bombings, clashes between
authorities and the opposition, conflict with the
country's fractious ethnic minorities, and even
natural disasters. "People don't believe the
number of dead announced by the government," said
one witness. "Some whole families are dead,
according to hospital staff."
The junta is
blaming the bombings on ethnic rebel groups,
including the Karen National Union and the Shan
State Army, and exiled dissidents in the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
(NCGUB). Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)
secretary Raymond Htoo, Karen National Union (KNU)
secretary Phado Mansha, and Shan State Army (SSA)
spokesman Nang Khur Sen have all denied any role
in the blasts, along with NCGUB leader Dr Sein
Win.
"We have nothing to do with this, and
these areas are not the places where we operate. We
operate only in the Shan state and we have no one
from us in cities like Rangoon [Yangon] and
Mandalay. We are not familiar with those areas,"
Nang Khur Sen said.
"They [the junta] want
to label us as terrorists. And [in] the place
where they have foreign guests, normally they have
tight security a month ahead," he said. "Only
authorities with access to these places could do
this."
The explosions came less than two
weeks after a bombing at a market in the northern
city of Mandalay killed two women and wounded 15
people. The junta blamed that attack on unnamed
rebels.
According to the witness, security
in Yangon has been tightened since the blasts.
"Monasteries and houses were ordered to report all
overnight guests. Also, at the city gate and bus
and train stations, security is up," the witness
said.
Crowded with weekend
shoppers
A police officer on duty at the
Junction 8 Supermarket in Mayangon township
reported the first explosion at 2:55pm on
Saturday. Three women were killed instantly, he
said, with 22 women and 11 men injured. All the
injured were sent to In Sein and North Okkalapa
hospitals, the officer said.
An officer
at the San Chaung township police station who
asked not to be named reported another explosion
at the Dagon shopping center at exactly the same
time as the Mayangon blast. "We don't know how it
happened," the officer said.
One
eyewitness at the Dagon center reported seeing 13
dead and numerous ambulances removing victims from
the scene. Other witnesses reported that the
center was crowded with Saturday afternoon
shoppers at the time of the blast and said they
expected the death toll to rise much higher.
At Pazuntaung police station, also in
Yangon and near the Thai trade fair, police hung
up the phone without speaking to RFA reporters.
'People were lying there, not
moving'
Within hours of the multiple
bombing, witnesses at all three blast sites said
they had seen dozens of casualties - many of them
missing limbs or heads - and numerous blackened
corpses. An eyewitness who was at the General
Hospital in Yangon from 5-7pm on the day of the
explosions said the casualties overwhelmed the
hospital's capacity and had to be laid out on
concrete floors. The witness, who asked not to be
identified, reported seeing "nine or 10" people
killed in the explosions who had been taken to the
morgue, as well as many victims, including
children and the elderly, who had lost body parts.
After the blast, a shop owner working on
the second floor of the Thai trade fair at the
time of the explosion told RFA's Myanmar service,
"I suddenly heard an explosion and thought the
building had collapsed. Then the roof fell down,
making a hole of about four square feet - and we
realized it was a bomb.
"Young people
[from my shop] went upstairs and looked, and they
said nine or 10 people were lying there, not
moving and burned entirely black. Everybody rushed
out from the stairs," said the shopkeeper, who had
been exhibiting diet food from Thailand.
"I saw many injured people ... covered
with blood. No rescue workers or security police
came up - just people helping each other carry the
wounded out using plastic tables and flagging down
cars to ask them to help. They were also carried
by old government-owned office cars. There were no
ambulances."
Myanmar pop singer Zaw Win
Htut, who had been scheduled to perform at the
trade fair at 3pm on Saturday, said he arrived
just after the explosion - narrowly avoiding one
of the blasts - and saw cars with windows
shattered by the force of the bombs.
"This
happened at a place where women and children and
normal shoppers are going, so I can't understand
this. I feel like there is no safe place in the
world," he said, noting that two members of his
band died in the explosion.
Copyright
(c) 2005, Radio Free Asia . Reprinted with the
permission of Radio Free Asia |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
