voa on the crisis

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

DATE=10/1/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=THAILAND - BURMA EMBASSY UPDATE L-O
NUMBER=2-254555
BYLINE=RON CORBEN
DATELINE=BANGKOK
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

            /// UPDATES CR 2-254547  NEW THRUOUT ///

INTRO:  A dozen armed attackers, calling themselves 
the Victorious Burmese Student Warriors, remain inside 
Burma's Embassy in Bangkok nine hours after storming 
the complex late Friday morning. They continue to hold 
diplomats and their families hostage. Ron Corben 
reports from Bangkok the hostages also include several 
foreigners who were at the Embassy's passport and visa 
section at the time of the raid.

TEXT:  Negotiations are proceeding slowly after the 
daring daylight attack when the gunmen stormed the 
Embassy compound around noon local time. In a faxed 
statement sent to a local Thai television station, the 
group is demanding Burma's military government free 
all political prisoners. The statement said none of 
the hostages had been harmed.

Senior police commanders at the hostage scene 
confirmed more than 20 foreigners, including Thai 
nationals, are being held inside the Embassy along 
with the Burmese diplomats and their families.

/// OPT /// The foreigners include three French 
nationals, two Malays, and one each from Japan, 
Canada, and Singapore. /// END OPT /// Burma's 
Ambassador to Thailand, initially was believed to have 
been inside the Embassy. But a military government 
spokesman in Rangoon says the senior diplomat was not 
present at the time of the attack.

Police say the raid occurred just before noon local 
time, and more than half a dozen shots rang out from 
within the walled compound, located in Bangkok's 
financial and diplomatic district.

Some 200 Thai police and security forces, some wearing 
bullet-proof vests, surrounded the compound in 
Bangkok's financial and diplomatic district. 

/// OPT ///It is an older style timber structure, with 
the more modern residential apartments at the back of 
the Embassy. More recently built office towers and 
apartments overlook the Embassy and its garden, from 
which Thai special branch and security officials had 
earlier taken up position. But as day turned to night 
floodlights were brought in to illuminate the garden 
area. /// END OPT ///

Soon after the group took over the premises, the 
Burmese national flag was lowered and replaced with 
one emblazoned with a red fighting peacock -- 
considered a symbol of the anti-military movement in 
Burma.

Police say the hostage takers were carrying automatic 
rifles and some 20 grenades when the attack began.

A key student group in Thailand, the All Burma 
Students Democratic Front or A-B-S-D-F, has anxiously 
denied any involvement in the siege.

Observers at the scene said the group, including men 
and women, had come from a special student refugee 
camp at Ratchburi, outside Bangkok, and from Mae Sot, 
a Thai border town and home for many Burmese refugees.

The incident is a violent departure from normally 
peaceful demonstrations by pro-democracy activists 
outside the Embassy that call for change in Burma. 
(Signed)

NEB/RC/JO



01-Oct-1999 10:44 AM EDT (01-Oct-1999 1444 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
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