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SCMP-Burmese oil tanker explodes ne



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: SCMP-Burmese oil tanker explodes near Thailand

South China Morning Post
Monday, October 18, 1999
BURMA

Burmese oil tanker explodes near Thailand
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Bangkok

Updated at 2.35pm:
A Burmese oil tanker has exploded in a suspected act of sabotage while at
anchor close to the country's tense border with Thailand, police said on
Monday.
Thai police at the Thai port of Ranong, 470km southwest of Bangkok, later
arrested three Burmese nationals traveling in a boat in Thai waters and
carrying dynamite.

''These people accepted that they owned the dynamite but denied any
involvement in the oil tank explosion. We are detaining all of them for
investigation,'' said Major-General Charoen Maneewong, commander of the
Ranong police.

The Chuay Mit oil tanker exploded just off the Burmese coast, two kilometres
from Thailand, late on Saturday and burned for seven hours, he said.

Two crewmen on the oil tanker, owned by a company in the nearby Burmese port
of Kawthaung, died. A cargo ship carrying smuggled cement had also been
destroyed in the blast, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.

Thai police arrested the three men from Burma five hours after the explosion
as they headed in a boat towards Thailand with 14 sticks of dynamite and
fuses on board.

The three were charged with illegally crossing the Thai border and
possessing explosives.

The incident comes at a time of bilateral tension after Burma suspended Thai
fishing concessions in its Andaman Sea waters in response to the storming of
the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok on October 1 by anti-Rangoon student
militants.

Burmese authorities, who have described the suspension as a temporary
security measure following the hostage-taking at the embassy, were not
immediately available for comment.

The military regime has blamed Bangkok for allowing anti-Rangoon
''terrorists'' to operate on and out of Thai territory.