Myanmar’s ruling military yesterday accused insurgent groups of seeking to disrupt Nov. 7 elections by planting explosive devices at a power pylon in an eastern town and a time bomb in central Yangon this week.
Most of the devices found in Thaton, about 240km east of Yangon, were defused by bomb disposal squads on Wednesday but one went off wounding an official sent to the scene.
The C-4 bomb was found at a central market in Yangon on Thursday, it said.
“Insurgents, destructive elements and political opportunists are trying to ramp up instigation and destructive acts with the aim of disrupting the upcoming multiparty democracy election,” the official New Light of Myanmar said.
“This incident was also arranged in sync with the recent Bago incident in which a brawl among young people ... [turned] into gunfire,” the paper said.
Two young men were shot dead by a soldier a week ago in a drunken brawl in Bago, about 80km north of Yangon, triggering an uproar among residents, watchdog agencies and the opposition.
Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on members of her National League for Democracy party, which swept Myanmar’s last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power, not to vote in November.
The party was effectively dissolved in May after refusing to register for the elections it saw as unfair from the outset.
There is growing concern among observers that the incident might spark a widespread unrest in the country similar to the one in 1988 when a minor teashop brawl between university students and security personnel snowballed into a national pro-democracy uprising against the military.
Witnesses told reporters yesterday security was stepped up along a highway between Yangon and Bago. They said all vehicle passengers had their identity cards checked and were required to disembark and walk through checkpoints.
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