YANGON, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar authorities warned on Monday that the Kayin National Union (KNU), the largest anti-government ethnic armed group in the country, may perpetrate more mine attacks to undermine the stability of state following the Dec. 18 incident, urging people to exercise constant vigilance against any possibility.
The authorities also charged the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an anti-government group in exile, with financing the KNU for two times during this year. The KNU also received cash assistance from Major Robert John Still of the U.S. Air Force on Dec. 6 for purchasing arms and ammunition, a report of the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar said.
On Dec. 18, about seven members of the KNU detonated a mine and fired small arms at a passenger bus which was on its way to Myawaddy from Kawkareik in the border area in northeastern Kayin state with Thailand, killing eight people and wounding six others, according to the paper's earlier report.
The authorities charged the KNU with constantly committing all destructive acts such as undermining stability of the state, community peace and tranquillity and prevalence of law and order.
More earlier reports said that on Dec. 12, a mine, planted in bushes in a village of Loikaw, eastern Myanmar's Kayah state, also exploded, killing eight villagers while they were clearing the bushes near the base of a tower.
Again in June this year, a total of 27 people were killed and 11 others wounded in two shooting sprees on passenger buses by unidentified insurgent groups in Myanmar's Kayin and Kayah states in two consecutive days, while in October, three villagers were killed and four others injured as they stepped on mines allegedly planted by insurgents in Ye township in southeastern Mon state and Kyaukkyi township in the Kayin state.
Since the government adopted a policy of national reconciliation in 1989, 17 main anti-government armed groups have made peace with the government under respective cease-fire agreements and leaving the largest of them, the KNU, out of the legal fold.
