Agence France Presse

Yangon, February 1:

Anti-government “destructionists” trained by Westerners are infiltrating Myanmar to commit acts of terror and sabotage in the run-up to a convention to draft a new constitution, the military junta said today.

Authorities have heightened security after police reports on the activities of saboteurs, including some aided by groups in the US, police Brigadier General Khin Yee said. “These destructionists are being sent into Myanmar by anti-government groups outside the country,” Khin Yee told a press conference. “Some are getting assistance from organisations based in the US,” including the US Campaign for Burma and the Free Burma Coalition,” he said.

“A group led by Ye Thi Ha, alias San Naing of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, sent three saboteurs to Yangon via Myawaddy with the aim of disrupting the national convention,” the general said. He also said “pro-democracy citizens of some big nations are providing training to expatriate destructionists to commit terrorist acts in Myanmar.”

The training included the use of explosives and mines, and in one case was being conducted by a US citizen and a Briton at a camp near Myawaddy and t he Thai border town of Mae Sot, 220 km east of Yangon, Khin Yee said.

“We have heightened security here and we would like to request all people to help us in uncovering these saboteurs,” Khin Yee said.

The militant Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors claimed responsibility for a December bombing in Yangon. It said more attacks would follow unless Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest. The junta said one small bomb exploded on January 6 in Kachin state, while two more blew up in Dawei town in southern Myanmar. No casualties were reported.

The national convention is the first of seven steps in Myanmar’s self-proclaimed road map to democracy. It resumes on February 17, seven months after it was adjourned. The convention was launched last May but boycotted by National League for Democracy (NLD), whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, and by two other political parties.

Information Minister Kyaw San said the three parties would not be invited back this time around. “We have not invited them because they have not attended the previous session.”

Western governments and the United Nations have derided the convention, attended by more than 1,000 hand-picked delegates, as a sham.