By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Report, Asia Desk

YANGON, Myanmar – Two men and a woman were injured in a bus explosion at a busy intersection in Myanmar’s main city Yangon, state media reported. “The rear roof of the bus was blown off,” the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said, adding that there was a foot-wide hole near the seat where the explosion occurred.  However, the paper did not mention whether a bomb caused the blast but said officials were investigating.

Myanmar’s military rulers on Sunday accused two members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) of bombing a pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association office in July.  Khin Yee, the national police chief said officers had seized bomb-making equipment from two members of the National League of Democracy party.  NLD youth members Yan Shwe and Zaw Zaw Aung were arrested along with human rights activists and former NLD member Myint Aye, who is accused of funding them.  Khin Yee also told reporters at a press conference, according to the information the national police have received, some NLD members were involved in attending training sessions for bombing… and possessing destructive tools such as gun-powder and detonators.  This is the first time the junta has accused members of the pro-democracy party of being involved in a bombing.

The junta also denied that detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on a hunger strike. “At the request of Daw Suu Kyi, arrangements were made for her lawyer to visit her three times and her doctor once. The information we heard from them did not indicate that Daw Suu Kyi was going on hunger strike,” Khin Yee told a news conference.  Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) party reported on Friday that she had been refusing those food supplies for the past three weeks in protest against her detention and restrictions on visitors.

For more information, pleas see:

AFP – Three injured in a bus explosion in Myanmar – 10 September 2008

AFP – Myanmar police chief denies Suu Kyi hunger strike – 07 September 2008

Daily Times – Myanmar accuses Suu Kyi’s party over bombing – 08 September 2008

International Herald Tribune – Report: Myanmar explosion injures 3 – 10 September 2008

International Herald Tribune – Myanmar police: ringleaders of bomb plot arrested – 07 September 2008