Yangon junta seeks Tokyo's help in

[soewin@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Yangon junta seeks Tokyo's help in bomb probe.

>From the Japan Times: April 10, 1997. Thursday.

YANGON JUNTA SEEKS TOKYO'S HELP IN BOMB PROBE

YANGON (Kyodo) Myanmar's military junta officially asked Japan on Wednesday
to help investigate the source of a parcel bomb that killed a daughter of
one of the top junta members in Yangon, diplomatic sources said. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Nyunt Swe filed the request with Japanese Ambassador
Yoichi Yamaguchi in a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Yangon, the sources
said. 

In Tokyo, the National Police Agency said police have started an
investigation into the case. Reports  by government-run newspapers in
Myanmar on preliminary investigations into last Sunday's bomb explosion said
the package was sent by airmail from a post office in Japan and was
disguised as a book parcel. 

The book in the parcel was in Japanese and it was believed to have been sent
from anti-Myanmar government elements operating in Japan, the reports said. 

Cho Lei Oo, 32, was killed when she opened the parcel, which was addressed
to Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, a secretary of the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council. Responding to the Yangon press reports, four Myanmarese
democracy groups based in Japan denied any involvement.

"The blast has nothing to do with us," the Japan branch of the National
League for Democracy and three other democracy groups said in a joint statement.

The four groups said they are trying to engage the ruling junta through
dialogue and have renounced violence. "From the beginning of the democracy
movement, we Burmese democracy activists have never trusted in nor advanced
violence," the statement said.

The groups dismissed the accusations as a "baseless lie," saying the blast
may be related to a power struggle within the ruling junta. 

Myanmar military officers have denied speculation that the bomb was
connected to a power struggle among SLORC leaders.

Tin Oo is the No 4 figure in the junta after Senior Gen. Than Shwe, Lt. Gen.
Maung Aye and Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt.