RANGOON, June 27: Burma's powerful intelligence chief on Friday shocked foreign reporters and diplomats when he accused the United States of aiding and abetting terrorist attacks in Burma as he announced the arrests of democracy activists he claimed were plotting to blow up foreign embassies and government leaders in Rangoon.

At a press conference Gen Khin Nyunt, one of the top four members of the military government, exposed what he called the ``vile and vicious drama of terrorism staged in the name of democracy and human rights by the US government.''

Khin Nyunt read out a list of appropriations by the US Congress that he claimed showed it was aiding groups for the purpose of launching terrorist attacks and exploding bombs. The groups funded by the US included the American Refugee Committee, International Rescue Committee, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Asian American Free Labour Institute and Dr Cynthia's Maesot Clinic, which provides free medical care to ethnic Karen refugees in Thailand.

Although he accused the US of funding the 50-year-old ethnic Karen insurgency against the Rangoon government, a former defence attache in the Bangkok embassy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US had never given the Karen any funding whatsoever.

Earlier, blasting economic sanctions President Clinton imposed on Burma in April because of the regime's mounting repression against the country's democracy movement, Khin Nyunt said the US had terminated all aid programmes extended to the government and transferred assistance to underground armed groups and terrorist groups.''

Although he dismissed the sanctions as having no effect on the Burmese economy when they were invoked, Khin Nyunt has railed against them ever since.

Despite Khin Nyunt's assurances, investor confidence in the Burmese economy seems to be eroding as the currency, the kyat, plunged to 202 against the dollar this week, after trading at 178 to the dollar recently.

Khin Nyunt said that during June his men had apprehended members of the national coalition government of the Union of Burma, a pro-democracy exile group based in the US, with explosive devices and materials including plastic explosives, fuse wires and detonators.

He said they planned to carry out bomb attacks on some foreign embassies in Rangoon and the residences of Burma's leaders, but he did not give the number or names of the individuals arrested and offered no evidence to back up his claims.

As intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt oversees the extensive network of spies and informers that keeps the Burmese people wrapped in a web of fear, and he administers the country's vast prison system where political prisoners are routinely subjected to torture. He also controls the state-run press which attacks the US and democracy activists on a daily basis in a relentless campaign of misinformation and propaganda.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.