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Security Forces Break Up
Attempted Demonstration in Western Burma
By Wai Moe January 17, 2008
About 200 people in Taunggot Township in Arakan State in western Burma were prevented from staging a demonstration on Thursday by soldiers and security forces, according to local sources.
A witness told The Irrawaddy that a crowd gathered around the Taunggot Market, including Buddhist monks, at about 7 am.
The security forces included members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association.
“A number of security force people prevented the protest,” said a local source. “Authorities used the same techniques they used in Rangoon.”

He said security forces formed a line and pushed back the protesters with metal shields and truncheons.
No one was arrested or injured, said the source.

Fearing a possible demonstration, the authorities closed the market on Wednesday without notice after interrogating two local members of the opposition National League for Democracy.

“This morning [Thursday] all the shops on streets around the market were doing business so it was very crowded,” said a witness. “An angry crowd was ready to demonstrate.”

Nyan Win, a NLD spokesperson, said NLD members in the township were closely watched and are now under surveillance.

Residents in Taunggot also demonstrated during the pro-democracy protests in August and September 2007.

Two men, Sithu and Than Lwin, staged a two-hour demonstration on August 31 and were arrested. The two carried sign boards declaring, “People Are Starving!” as a protest against fuel and commodity prices.

On September 4, about 1,000 people in the township staged a peaceful protest demanding the release of Sithu and Than Lwin, led by 15 local NLD members.


Another Explosion in Burma Kills Bus Conductor
By The Associated Press January 17, 2008
Five people have been injured in the blasts, which the ruling junta has generally blamed on unspecified foreign groups.
The junta routinely blames acts of violence on foreigners, including street rallies last year led by Buddhist monks that the government suppressed with a violent crackdown. After troops fired on peaceful protesters in September, the junta accused Western powers and the foreign media of fomenting the protests.
"Information has been received that a foreign organization has sent terrorist saboteurs with explosives across the border to perpetrate destructive acts inside the country," the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said Monday.
The latest blast occurred Wednesday when the bus was in Pyinbonegyi, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Rangoon, the country's biggest city, the New Light of Myanmar said. It instantly killed the 35-year-old bus conductor Lwin Soe, the newspaper said.
A government source, who spoke on conditional of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the blast took place when the bus was stopped to allow passengers to eat at a roadside shop, and the conductor remained on board. The bus was traveling to Rangoon from Kyaukyi, a town about 170 kilometers (110 miles) to the north.
State media linked at least one of the recent bombings to ethnic Karen rebels, and the bus that was hit by an explosion Wednesday originated in an ethnic Karen area.
The first of the recent explosions occurred January 11 at the railway station serving the country's new administrative capital of Naypyitaw, killing a 40-year-old ethnic Karen woman whom the government later said was the bomber.
The second blast occurred Friday night at a circus in the northern town of Pyu, injuring four civilians and killing a man said to be a Karen rebel who allegedly planted the explosive.
The third blast on Sunday near a public toilet at the ticketing office of Rangoon's main railway station injured a 73-year-old woman.
The Karen National Union has been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy from Burma's military government. It is the only major ethnic rebel group that has not agreed to a cease-fire with the junta. But they and other government opponents deny carrying out attacks targeting civilians.
Terrorism is rare but not unknown in Burma, which has been under military rule almost continuously since 1962.
The deadliest such attack in recent years took place on May 7, 2005, when three bombs went off almost simultaneously at two upscale supermarkets and a convention center in Rangoon, killing about two dozen people and injuring more than 160 others. The perpetrators remain unknown.