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Bomb kills seven, injures 11 in Myanmar's Karen State
Dec 18, 2009

Yangon - A bomb exploded during a fair in Myanmar's Karen State, killing seven people and injuring 11 others, state media reported Friday.

The time bomb exploded on Wednesday evening in Papun, about 100 kilometres north-east of Yangon, where townsfolk were celebrating the traditional Karen New Year, said The New Light of Myanmar, a government newspaper.

A government investigation blamed the bomb on the Karen National Union, a rebel group which has been fighting for the independence of the Karen State since 1949, making it one of the world's oldest insurgencies.

The Karen are an ethnic minority group of Tibetan-Burman origin whose traditional home has been the territory in eastern Myanmar bordering Thailand. Many of the Karen are Christians.

A two-decade-old Myanmar military offensive against the Karen has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands of Karen to flee to Thailand.

monstersandcritics.com

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