Thai MPs seek emergency debate on Myanmar

Thai MPs seek emergency debate on Myanmar

Agencies, Bangkok/Yangon

A group of Thai senators on Monday sought an emergency meeting with the government on Myanmar's (Burma's) bid to chair next year's summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The motion, which was submitted to House Speaker Phokin Bharakula, follows a triple bombing over the weekend in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, in which three Thais nationals were injured while participating in an exhibition at the Yangon Trade Center, one of the bombing targets.

Military-ruled Myanmar has imposed a blackout on news of casualties from Saturday's bomb blasts after official reports of 11 dead, but concern mounted on Monday that the toll was substantially higher.

Security throughout the capital was also boosted amid fears of new attacks, with businesses ordered shuttered by 6 p.m. and stringent new measures put in place at government offices and banks.

Doctors at Yangon General Hospital, the capital's largest, admitted they had been ordered not to speak to journalists about the numbers of dead, as others who had witnessed the blasts said it was unlikely that all 162 declared wounded had survived the bombings at two shopping malls and a trade center.

Myanmar's junta routinely restricts information on sensitive incidents such as bombings, clashes between authorities and the pro-democracy opposition and even natural disasters if it feels the data would further harm the isolated government's reputation.

Senior Thai officials in Bangkok said on Monday that 21 people, all Myanmar nationals, were killed in the blasts.

"The death toll increased from 11 to 21, with 40 seriously injured and several others with minor injuries," a member of Thailand's National Security Council told AFP after the council was briefed on the Yangon attacks.

Myanmar authorities have blamed various ethnic minority insurgencies, who in turn have blamed disgruntled factions within the Myanmar military, that staged a major internal cleansing last year.

"The Burmese government has by their behavior created more and more enemies, not only among the minorities and democratic opposition, but also among the different military factions," said Kraisak Choonhavan, who heads the Senate foreign affairs committee.

"This is just an added risk to the ASEAN summit meeting, aside from the fact that it will probably be boycotted by the U.S. and EU (European Union) if Myanmar is chair," said Kraisak.

Kraisak and 76 other senators out of the 200-seat Upper House signed a petition demanding an immediate meeting with the government over the issue of Myanmar's looming chairmanship of ASEAN next year.

Myanmar, which joined ASEAN in 1997, is scheduled to chair the regional grouping in 2006 after Malaysia's term expires. ASEAN's chairmanship is determined alphabetically each year.