Bomb blast in Yangon injures seven (Roundup)

Sep 25, 2008, 11:11 GMT

Yangon - A bomb blast in central Yangon Thursday morning injured seven people, witnesses said.

The blast was near the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) which is near the Sule Pagoda. All seven injured were reportedly men and taken to hospital.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Outside of the fighting with ethnic minority groups in the border regions, the Myanmar military government keeps the country in a tight grip, with bombs and other isolated violent acts rare.

Security has been extra tight in Yangon, the largest city and commercial centre of the country, this month because it marks the one-year anniversary of huge anti-government demonstrations led by Buddhist monks, followed by a brutal crackdown by military authorities.

The 'saffron rebellion' was led my Myanmar's monkhood, which has a long history of political activism, and took the lead in organizing peaceful protests against drastic fuel hikes announced August 15, 2007, and the country's deteriorating economic conditions.

The demonstrations culminated in ten-of-thousands of people taking to the streets of Yangon in increasingly aggressive protests against the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.

The junta cracked down on September 26-27 last year with batons and bullets, killing an estimated 100 people, including dozens of monks, and imprisoning more than 3,000.