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NEWS - Renegades blamed for Myanmar



Subject: NEWS - Renegades blamed for Myanmar embassy attack

Renegades blamed for Myanmar embassy attack

By David Brunnstrom

  
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Two of Myanmar's main dissident groups denied
involvement in the storming of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok on Friday
but said renegade dissidents might be responsible. 

A dozen heavily armed men stormed the embassy on Friday morning and took
at least 30 people hostage, including diplomats and more than 12
foreigners. They later demanded a helicopter to fly them to the
Thai-Myanmar border. 

A faxed statement from a group claiming responsibility and calling
itself ``Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors'' demanded Myanmar's
military government free political prisoners, enter a dialogue with the
opposition and convene a democratic parliament. 

Earlier, under the cover of a burst of about 10 shots fired in the air,
the attackers removed the Myanmar flag from the embassy and ran up
another carrying the symbol of the country's democracy struggle -- a
fighting peacock. 

The main group of Myanmar students in exile and the Karen National Union
guerrilla group, both based on the Thai-Myanmar border, said it would
not be in their interests to stage such an attack in Thailand and they
did not believe in terrorism. 

``It was thought it was the KNU, but it wasn't KNU at all,'' Major
Nerdah Mya, son and spokesman for KNU president Bo Mya told Reuters.
``Our policy is totally against terrorism acts. 

``We were surprised by this. The democratic forces would never do
something like this. This is in Thailand and this is like a terrorist
act and we are not terrorists. It would undermine our activity and
movement if we did something like that.'' 

Asked who might be responsible, he said: ``If the attack has been
carried out by anti-government elements they would be renegades.'' 

KNU spokesman David Thackabaw later told Thai television it was possible
the group may have once lived in KNU territory but not any more. ``As
far as we know those students have no connection with us,'' he said. 

Earlier, the vice-president of the main group of dissident Myanmar
students in exile said his group was not involved. 

``We don't know exactly who they are,'' Moe Thee Zun, of the All Burma
Students' Democratic Front, told Reuters. ``We are not involved in this,
we don't want to support terrorist actions.'' 

The statement from the hitherto unknown group claiming responsibility
also said it was not connected with Myanmar dissident student
organisations, the country's opposition or international support groups.
``This action is our own movement and our own ideas,'' it said. 

Journalist and Myanmar scholar Bertil Lintner, a leading expert on
dissident movements, said he believed a fringe group of dissidents was
responsible. 

``These are desperate people who have been banging their heads against a
wall for so long without getting anywhere,'' he said. 

The Yangon government called it a ``pure act of terrorism'' but said it
was too early to say which anti-government group was responsible. ``We
are looking into this, although we are a little confused now by the
whole thing,'' a government spokesman said. 

Many student dissidents fled Myanmar to Thailand after the military in
their country killed thousands to crush a pro-democracy uprising in
1988. Some, including the ABSDF, teamed up with ethnic guerrilla groups
like the KNU which have fought for decades against the Yangon
government. 

Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the attack put
Thailand in a difficult position. 

``We are responsible for security of diplomatic corps in Thailand,'' he
told reporters. ``They should not use Thailand to commit this kind of
act because the conflict is between them and their government and
Thailand has nothing to do with it.'' 

10:54 10-01-99

Copyright 1999 Reuters