Bomb explodes at Myanmar railway station, one injured

A bomb exploded in the women's toilet at the main railway station in Yangon yesterday, two days after a similar attack killed at least one person near military-ruled Myanmar's capital, officials said.

They said one woman was wounded, but declined to give further details of the blast in Yangon, the country's biggest city and scene of major biggest anti-junta demonstrations last year.

On Friday, a woman was killed by a bomb that exploded in the toilet of the railway station serving Naypyidaw, the new capital in jungle-clad hills 380km north of Yangon to which the generals moved in November 2005.

Small bomb blasts at public places such as Buddhist temples, markets and fairs are relatively common in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962 and riven by multiple ethnic guerrilla conflicts.

The junta normally points the finger at dissident groups, ranging from exiled pro-democracy activists to ethnic militias who have been fighting for greater autonomy or even independence for more than five decades.

Official newspapers said a bomber was killed and four people were wounded when the bomb he was preparing to plant went off prematurely near a circus in Pyu Township on the Yangon-Mandalay road on on Friday evening.

They said a captured accomplice identified the bomber as a member of the Karen National Union, a guerrilla army fighting for autonomy of the Karen region.

Meanwhile, the governments of Indonesia and Myanmar have agreed to postpone a visit this week by Myanmar Prime Minister Lieutenant General Thein Sein, a spokesman said yesterday.

Former Indonesian president Suharto is in hospital critically ill.

Thein Sein's visit was to have primarily focused on enhancing bilateral economic relations, the president's spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said.

"Following consultations with the government of Myanmar, there has been an agreement reached to postpone the visit because the national mood is not conducive [for a visit] at the moment," he said. "We will reschedule the visit at a time more convenient to both sides."