Burma’s state-controlled media labeled various exile groups as “terrorist gangs” on Friday, accusing them of plotting to launch “synchronized attacks against the nation” from the Thai border town of Mae Sot. The unsigned article accused the National Council of the Union of Burma, the Federation of Trade Unions Burma, and the National League for Democracy (Liberated Areas). A spokesman for the NCUB’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nyo Ohn Myint, said: “We have no military offensive [planned].”

The article, which appeared in The New Light of Myanmar, said exiles’ activities attempted to “drive in a wedge to destroy bilateral efforts for peace and stability”-referring to Thailand. It also blamed a “Western power”-a tag which applies to the US-of colluding with the exiled groups and sending its embassy staff to the NLD headquarters in Rangoon, which “amounts to brazenly interfering,” the report said.

The article comes a day after Thailand and Burma finished talks in Chiang Mai on cross-border issues including security and “illegal alien problems.” The official Thai News Agency quoted Thailand’s Third Army Commander, Lt-Gen Saprang Kalayanamitre, as saying both sides agreed to forget past disagreements and start anew.