|
|
|
|
Blame game continues over Myanmar
blasts
By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Thailand said it will pursue
terrorists described by Myanmar as Central
Intelligence Agency-trained, because "maybe
someone did something along the border", resulting
in a synchronized triple-bombing in Myanmar on May
7 that killed 19 people.
"Thailand does
not harbor terrorists, and the Thai government
will not allow terrorists to shelter on the Thai
soil," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, who hopes to maintain Bangkok's
lucrative business relations with Yangon. "The
statement from Myanmar did not specify the Thai
government's involvement. But maybe someone did
something along the border," the prime minister
said on Monday.
"Myanmar will just have to
name the suspects and coordinate with us through
diplomatic channels, so that we can jointly arrest
and interrogate the suspects," Thaksin said.
Thailand is a pliant military and economic
ally of the United States, an eager business
partner with Myanmar, and publicly gives
"humanitarian aid" to unarmed members of ethnic
minorities fleeing occasional rebel skirmishes
inside the junta-ruled country.
Officials
in Yangon have hinted that the US Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained, armed and
financed "terrorists" on the Thai side of the
lengthy, jungle-clad and porous Thai-Myanmar
border, enabling them to detonate three bombs made
of a demolition explosive called RDX in Myanmar's
capital. No one claimed responsibility and no one
was immediately arrested for the bombings, which
took place at two supermarkets and a conference
center on May 7.
According to an official
statement from the Myanmar regime published on
Tuesday, "The anti-government elements in exile
formed an alliance with remnant national race
[minority ethnic] armed groups active in border
areas, and set up the [exiled] National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma.
"They
have been committing various destructive and
terrorist acts, such as waging armed revolt
against the Tatmadaw [military] government,
hijacking, raiding the Myanmar Embassy in
Thailand," as well as detonating bombs around the
nation and destroying roads, bridges, and gas
pipelines, said the accusation in the
government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
On Sunday, Myanmar's Information Minister
Kyaw Hsan told journalists, "It is crystal clear
that the terrorists ... and the time bombs,
originated from training conducted with foreign
experts at a place in a neighboring country by a
world-famous organization of a certain superpower
nation." His circuitous language was widely
perceived as fingering Thailand, the CIA and the
United States.
Myanmar is mainland
Southeast Asia's biggest country and consistently
blasts the United States for trying to destabilize
it, despite allowing a US$1 billion, 40-mile-long,
natural gas pipeline to run from Myanmar into
Thailand that includes a massive investment by
California-based Unocal corporation, which came
under acquisition in April by ChevronTexaco.
Possible bombers with motives and
expertise include:
Minority ethnic guerrillas fighting in Myanmar
for the past 50 years for autonomy or independence
along the border. Over the decades, they have
received international medical treatment, illegal
military training by foreign mercenaries, and a
media platform to blast Myanmar's repressive
military government. The junta has named ethnic
Shan, Karen and Karenni rebels as taking part in
the blasts, but they have denied involvement.
Competition among some guerrilla groups for
illegal opium, heroin and methamphetamine
smuggling routes through Myanmar's Shan state
recently erupted in violence in the mountains
along the border.
Fugitive Myanmar intelligence agents close to
former prime minister Khin Nyunt, who was arrested
in October amid charges of corruption and other
abuses. Khin Nyunt had headed Myanmar's military
intelligence agency, and when he was removed from
his post his network was also dismantled,
resulting in scores of arrests and a split within
Myanmar's vicious and secretive domestic spy
agency. At least 38 intelligence officers linked
to him were jailed in April for sentences ranging
from 20 to 100 years. Hundreds more of his cronies
are awaiting tribunals.
Myanmar's government itself, which has come
under suspicion by its opponents who claim only
the battle-hardened military regime had the
capability and resources to stage the sensational
triple bombing, as Yangon is riddled with
informants and monitored by government
phone-tappers.
Internationally,
Buddhist-majority Myanmar enjoys support from
China, India, Singapore and elsewhere, though it
suffers some economic sanctions imposed by Europe
and the United States amid demands for an end to
military rule and human-rights atrocities.
Richard S Ehrlich is a
Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California. He has reported news from Asia since
1978 and is co-author of Hello My Big Big
Honey!, a non-fiction book of investigative
journalism. He received a master's degree from
Columbia University's Graduate School of
Journalism.
(Copyright 2005 Richard S
Ehrlich.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
