Yangon bomb wounds 4 as protest anniversary looms

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside City Hall in Myanmar's main city on Thursday, wounding four people the day before the anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on anti-government protests.

"It seems to have been a small bomb but we are still carrying out investigations," a policeman, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters at the scene of the blast near a busy bus terminal in the heart of Yangon.

Anybody from underground pro-democracy groups to ethnic minority guerrillas to the military government itself could be behind the blast, which left few signs of damage, according to a diplomat who arrived shortly afterwards.

"It could have been anyone on any side with any number of objectives," the diplomat said. "There wasn't some great big hole in the ground, but people were injured and it was right in the middle of downtown."

Small bombs are relatively common in Myanmar. The junta routinely blames them on dissidents in exile or the jungle militias that have been fighting the ethnic Burmese majority since shortly after independence from Britain in 1948.

Three women and a man were wounded, but the police officer said they were not thought to be seriously hurt.

Armed police and soldiers immediately sealed off the area, a focal point of the massive marches by Buddhist monks a year ago against army rule stretching back to 1962.

At least 31 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown, which drew worldwide condemnation when it was launched on September 26, 2007.