Bombs rock key city in Myanmar, injuring 1

Three bombs rocked the capital of Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, Sittwe, early yestserday, police said, adding that a policeman was slightly injured and the authorities were still working to determine who was behind the bombings.

The blasts come only three days after a large bomb killed two bank employees and injured nearly two dozen other people in the north-eastern city of Lashio, where several ethnic insurgent groups are fighting the Myanmar military.

Sittwe is the capital of Myanmar’s violence-torn Rakhine where Rohingya Muslim insurgent attacks last year sparked a massive military response that pushed 688,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh. Many of them recounted killings, rape and arson by Myanmar soldiers and police.

Explosions near court

One of the Sittwe bombs — which went off around 4.30am — exploded in the backyard of an outspoken state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, police said. He is one of the highestranking officials in the local administration. The other two bombs exploded near the high court and a land record office.

“There’re suspects, but now is not the time to talk. Police are trying to make sure about the suspects by analysing the structure of the bombs,” police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe, said by phone.

Myo Thu Soe also said three other unexploded hand-made bombs were found in the city.

The United Nations and the United States have called the crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, but the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has blocked UN investigators and other independent monitors from the conflict zone. Myanmar says its forces have been engaged in a legitimate campaign against “terrorists”.