Guerillas release Australian hostag

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Thursday, April 2, 1998


Guerillas release Australian hostage 


By DIANE STOTT

An Australian aid worker captured by Thai guerillas has been released after
five days of captivity.

Mr Nick Cheesman, 28, who worked as an English teacher at the Huay Kalok
refugee camp, was released to the Thai military about two kilometres from
where he was originally captured.

He was later handed over to an Australian Embassy official from Bangkok and
a member of the Bangkok-based private organisation Burma Issues, the aid
organisation Mr Cheesman works for.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, said last night Mr Cheesman
appeared in good health. "I know his family and all those concerned with his
welfare are greatly relieved with his safe return to Thailand," he said.

Mr Cheesman and his Thai colleague, Ms Khun Lek, were kidnapped by members
of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) on Friday afternoon near the
refugee camp where they worked, and were ordered at gunpoint across the Moei
River in north-west Thailand into Burma.

They were understood to have been riding bicycles to a Buddhist temple near
the refugee camp when they were captured.

The release was secured after five days of intense negotiations between the
militants and the Australian, Thai and Burmese Governments.

 

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