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.