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Rebels say Myanmar sends 2,000 troops to KNU area MAE SOT, Thailand, May 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government has sent 2,000 troops into areas controlled by the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), blamed by Yangon for bombings in the capital last weekend, the KNU said on Thursday. A convoy of troops and artillery arrived on Wednesday at a town near the KNU base camp, opposite the Thai northern hill province of Mae Hong Song. "The troop deployment might be a result of the weekend bombs. They have accused us of planting the bombs," Colonel Nerda Mya, a senior commander in the country's largest armed ethnic group, told Reuters. Myanmar's military, which has ruled the former Burma in various forms since 1962, has blamed the KNU, Karenni Progressive Party, Shan State Army and an exiled pro-democracy group for the attacks last Saturday which killed 11 people and wounded 162. All four groups have denied the charge and security analysts have also cast doubt on the junta's claims, saying these groups have no history of working together. Nerda said the KNU continued to honour an informal ceasefire reached with Yangon in December 2003, but his troops would be on alert. "Although we have a truce with them, we can't be complacent," said Nerda, whose father General Bo Mya helped found the KNU which began its fight for autonomy from Burmese military rulers 56 years ago. The KNU has blamed the bombs -- which ripped into two upscale shopping malls and a trade centre -- on junta infighting since the purge of former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt last October and the dismantling of its powerful Military Intelligence unit. Khin Nyunt had negotiated several ceasefire agreements with Myanmar's many ethnic rebel groups before he was ousted amid allegations of corruption by MI, which controlled a vast business empire.
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