Burma said today 15 dissidents had been arrested over a plot to carry out bombings during UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's visit to the country last month.
Police acting on a tip-off arrested dissident Htay Aung on July 2nd, the day before Mr Ban's visit, and seized detonators, cable and TNT explosives, national police chief, Brigadier General Khin Yi, said. "There are those who do not want to see prevalence of peace and stability in our country," he told a news conference.
Brig Khin Yi said the suspect had planned to leave bombs at three locations around Yangon's Insein Prison, where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was being held in a guesthouse during her trial on security charges.
Mr Ban visited Burma on July 3rd and 4th but spent less than one day in Rangoon after meeting the regime's top generals in the new capital, Naypyidaw. His request to visit Ms Suu Kyi in prison was denied by junta supremo Than Shwe.
Ms Suu Kyi faces five years in prison for allowing American intruder John Yettaw to stay at her home for two nights in May after he swam across the Inya lake to warn her she would be assassinated by "terrorists."
Brig Khin Yi said further investigation into the bomb plot had led to the arrest of 14 others from various dissident groups. He did not say why police had taken so long to announce the arrests.
Bomb explosions are fairly common in Burma. The junta, which has ruled for almost half a century, usually blames dissident groups, pro-democracy activists or ethnic rebels fighting for autonomy.