Jury Chai and Thu Rein : A Burmese army battalion commander and two of soldiers were injured on August 25th, when a bomb exploded at 5:45 pm in quarter 4 of Three Pagodas Pass (TPP) town, near the Thai-Burma border.
Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 32 Commander Kyaw Win Khing was wounded on his hand, and a captain named Naing Lin Oo sustained an ear injury due to the blast; a third man named Soe Win, a soldier trained in removing landmines, was seriously wounded, and lost his left leg in the explosion.
The bomb was first spotten by TPP residents looking for mushrooms in quarter 4 at 5 pm on the 25th. They immediately informed the quarter headman, who in turn reported the bomb sitting to security department authorities, the Burmese army, and the local police.
The explosive reportedly detonated a short while later, when Commander Kyaw Win Khing responded to the headman’s report, and attempted to move the bomb with his men.
Witnesses to the explosion told IMNA’s reporter, “the bomb exploded when Soe Win put it in the other hole after lifting it from the original place to explode it [explosion site]”.
Theses witnesses claimed that they had visited the area of the bomb blast at 3 pm on the 25th, and had seen nothing suspicious. They informed IMNA that it was only after returning to the area at 5 pm that they discovered the explosive, leading them to believe that the bomb had been planted only hours before its detonation.
According to a retired ethnic revolutionary living in TPP town, the Three Pagodas Pass Area has been plagued by bomb blasts and bomb sittings since IB No. 32 arrived in the area in mid-June of this year.
On August 26th, IMNA’s reporter learned that more witnesses found a bomb wire at the site of the previous day’s blast in quarter 4; a second bomb was reportedly found on the same day, near Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) checkpoint 906, but authorities were able to disable it before it detonated.
The ethnic revolutionary that IMNA spoke with explained that he suspects the Burmese Army is to blame for the recent influx of explosives in TPP; he feels that the large amounts of explosives being planted, but not detonated, in the recent past are a ploy to make the Thai-Burma border look unstable during the upcoming 2010 elections, and a means of making local ethnic opposition groups appear violent.
He stated that, “The explosion on August 25th was not the aim [of the individuals who set the bomb]”.
This individual also pointed to the similarities between the types of explosives found in the TPP area, and opined that he believed that members of the Burmese army would not have touched the device on August 25th, if they had not had good reason to expect the device would not explode. He suspects that that the device likely detonated due to mishandling.
The government-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper stated in an August 16th article that TPP resident must inform Burmese government authorities if they spot any sign of explosives, landmines, or grenades in the area.
TPP residents told IMNA that while in the past Burmese government authorities in TPP led strict investigations of bomb scares, authorities now seem largely uninterested in investigating bomb threat and explosions thoroughly.
They added that, “The authorities before were the only ones to inspect [a bomb site], and they didn’t allow people to enter it [a bomb site]. Now people can look at [the sites] whenever they want and they can take photos. [The government authorities] don’t prevent it”.
The New Light of Myanmar’s August 16th article, in contrast, claimed that tight security in TPP continues to be upheld; the newspaper also blamed the recent blasts on “insurgents”, but did not accuse any group in particular.
