Myanmar tightens security, puts public on alert after blast

02-07-2008

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's military regime Wednesday tightened security in Yangon and urged the public to remain alert for "saboteurs," after a small bomb damaged the offices of a pro-junta group.The blast caused no injuries when it exploded inside a local government compound around dawn on Tuesday in a township on the northern outskirts of Yangon.

But it blew a hole in the brick wall of the office belonging to the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), damaging some office equipment, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

After the blast, police increased their patrols during the night, with heavy trucks rumbling through the streets of Myanmar's main city, witnesses said.

State media Wednesday also warned the public to remain on alert and to report any suspected attackers.

"The authorities have already reminded the people to pay special attention to the saboteurs who will be active assuming various forms in public places and to expose them by reporting to officials," the newspaper said.

The USDA is a pro-junta organisation blamed by Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters for a series of attacks, including a deadly raid on her convoy five years ago that marked the beginning of her latest period of house arrest.

The Nobel peace laureate has spent most of the last 18 years confined to her home in Yangon.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Monday also accused the group of attacking her supporters on June 19 as they gathered to mark her 63rd birthday.

Fourteen people were arrested after USDA members and a militia beat the activists outside the party's headquarters, NLD said in a statement.

The blast follows two others in April in downtown Yangon, the country's economic hub, which damaged cars but caused no injuries.

The junta blamed those blasts on an armed exiled student group, Vigorous Burma Student Warriors, who oppose military rule.

Other bombs and shootings since December have been blamed on ethnic rebels.

The Tuesday bomb was the first such incident since Cyclone Nargis hit two months ago, leaving more than 138,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.