Myanmar blasts kill at least nine in Yangon

Thu, 15 Apr 2010
DPA

Yangon - A series of explosions on Thursday killed at least nine people and injured up to 62 while they were enjoying Myanmar's traditional New Year celebrations in Yangon, police and hospital sources said.

Three blasts, believed to have been caused by grenades, were reported in Mingalartaungnyunt township near a popular lake in Yangon at 3:10 pm (0840 GMT), said a policeman who asked to remain anonymous.

The area was packed with people enjoying the New Year.

Yangon hospital officials told reporters that five women and four men died in the blasts, which injured 45 men and 17 women.

The official toll was put at six dead and 75 injured.

It was the worst act of urban terrorism in Yangon, Myanmar's former capital and largest city, since May 2005 when bombs exploded in popular shopping districts, killing 11 people and injuring up to 160.

Those bombs were blamed on the Karen National Union and Shan State Army, two rebel groups that have been fighting the central government for decades.

Thursday's blasts came while people were enjoying the Thingyan Pandal festival, believed to of Brahmin origin, which is accompanied by water splashing and the smearing of talcum paste on people's cheeks.

It comes at the peak of the hot season in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, which also celebrate their traditional New Year this week.

Gold thieves explode grenades in heist, injure six

Mon, 21 Sep 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Two thieves hurled several hand grenades into a local market in eastern Cambodia before robbing a gold vendor of a small amount of gold and cash, national media reported Monday. Provincial police chief Sann Sothea said six gold vendors were injured Friday's attack on the market in Kampong Cham province. The robbers escaped with 250 US dollars and an unknown quantity of gold.

"It is the first time that the gold robbers used grenades to rob the market vendors like this in Kampong Cham province," Sann Sothea told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

Two vendors were seriously injured in the blasts and four others were slightly hurt, he said. Seven market stalls were destroyed.

Sann Sothea said the number of injuries was low because many vendors had left the market to prepare food for the annual Pchum Ben festival, when the country's majority Buddhist population visit pagodas to leave offerings for their deceased relatives.

Police had made no arrests in connection in the incident.

Many Cambodians store their wealth in gold as they do not trust banks. This year has seen a spate of attacks on gold vendors in the capital Phnom Penh and other parts of Cambodia.

Two boys killed by leftover bomb

August 25, 2007
From correspondents in Phnom Penh
Agence France-Presse

TWO Cambodian boys were killed and seven other children seriously wounded when a grenade they had found exploded while they were playing it.

The boys, aged nine and 12, died instantly in yesterday's blast, said Tep Mean, governor of Phnom Srouch district, where the accident happened some 65km from the capital Phnom Penh.

The children had been watching a herd of cattle when they found the grenade, he said.

"They wanted to make a game out of the bomb, which was left over from the war, but it exploded and killed them," he said today.

Cambodia is recovering from nearly three decades of conflict which only formally ended in 1998, but millions of mines and other pieces of ordnance are still strewn across the country.

Organised mine clearing efforts began in 1992 and 252 square-kilometres have so far been cleared.

Intensive public education campaigns have also dramatically reduced the number of mine casualties.

But roughly 2900 square-kilometres of mine-infested land remains, while extreme poverty forces many to try to salvage the deadly munitions for small amounts of money.

SRP Village chief killed in a grenade explosion

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A recently elected SRP village chief in Kompong Speu province was killed from a grenade explosion on Monday morning when he was walking to his rice field. Kompong Speu SRP MP Nuth Romduol told The Cambodia Daily on Tuesday that Kong Khy, the 42-year-old Russei village chief, located in Svay Chachib commune, Borset district, was killed by a grenade explosion at about 100-meter from his home at 6:00 AM. Nuth Romduol said that “it looks like someone set a trap to kill him because he was recently elected as village chief.” However, Keo Pisey, the police commissioner in the province of Kompong Speu denied the claim made by Nuth Romduol. Keo Pisei said the grenade belonged to Kong Khy and he suspects that Kong Khy hid the grenade to illegally hunt wild animals.

Explosion at Stung Meanchey garbage dump

26 March 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A grenade exploded on top of the garbage dump in Stung Meanchey on Saturday, causing four injuries. Touch Naruth, the Phnom Penh police chief, said on Sunday that the explosion occurred at 9:30 PM at the [Stung Meanchey] garbage dump. The incident took place when four men were burning garbage to chase away the mosquitoes, the men unknowingly caused the explosion of a launch grenade used in an M-79 grenade launcher. Touch Naruth denies that this explosion is linked to any political issue because according to an interview with the victims, they said that they were burning trash to chase away the mosquitoes. Chan Sovet, the director of the investigation department of the Adhoc human rights group, indicated that it is not yet possible to deny that there no political link [to the explosion]. Chan Sovet told the Cambodia Daily that he visited the area on Monday to investigate the explosion which [coincidentally] occurred during the campaign for the commune election. He said that such explosion could be politically motivated to it could be due to disputes during the election campaign.