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AFP-Myanmar dissidents say embassy



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AFP-Myanmar dissidents say embassy hostage crisis a "wake up call"

Myanmar dissidents say embassy hostage crisis a "wake up call"
BANGKOK, Oct 2 (AFP) - Exiled Myanmar dissidents Saturday deplored the
violent tactics of radical student gunmen who stormed the Myanmar embassy
here taking nearly 40 hostages, but said the action should be seen as a
"wake up call" by ASEAN.
The captors called for democracy in Myanmar, demanding the junta start talks
with Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) and
the release all political prisoners.

The gunmen, calling themselves the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors," fled
in a helicopter supplied by Thai authorities.

However, dissidents and democracy activists based in Bangkok said they
rejected the use of violence in the struggle to overthrow decades-old
military rule in Myanmar.

"The hostage crisis is very dangerous for the non-violent pro-democracy
movement," said Debbie Stothard from the Alternative ASEAN Network on Asia.

Human rights groups and Myanmar dissidents released a statement warning
Myanmar's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) partners that the
hostage crisis should be considered a "wake up call."

"The event is a grim reminder that there are consequences for failing to
achieve peaceful positive changes in Burma," said the statement, signed by
nine organisations.

"The best way to prevent such unfortunate events from recurring in ASEAN's
front yard is to engage in a peaceful, political process at an early stage,"
it said.

The gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades stormed the embassy just
before noon Friday taking diplomats, Thais and a number of foreigners
hostage.

Many bursts of gunfire were heared from within the embassy during the
24-hour hostage crisis, but none of the hostages was seriously injured.

Most, if not all the hostages, are now believed to have been released.

The latest group of 23 was released at a makeshift helicopter landing pad a
few kilometers (miles) from the embassy in exchange for Thai Deputy Foreign
Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra and another official, an AFP reporter on the
scene said.

The helicopter carrying the new hostages and five gunmen is believed to be
have landed near the Thai-Myanmar border.

Police had earlier said 12 gunmen were behind the attack, but they now say
only five men were involved.

While criticising the use of force, the dissidents said they sympathised
with the group's demands for political reform in Myanmar.

Stothard said she feared a backlash against democracy activists and issued a
tearful plea for Thai police to refrain from launching a crackdown on exiled
dissident groups.

"Dissidents living in Bangkok are leaving their homes out of fear that the
police will come and arrest them," she said.

Myanmar was admitted to ASEAN in 1997, despite criticism from western
nations of the junta's poor human rigths record.

ASEAN maintains the best way to bring about change in Myanmar is through
"constructive engagement."

Dissidents have been locked in a long-running and bitter struggle for
democracy with the junta.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won an overwhelming victory in 1990
elections ignored by the military.

The NLD has consistently rejected the use of violence to bring about
democratic change.

The Yangon junta has been condemned around the world for widespread human
rights abuses including the systematic rape and torture of ethnic
minorities, the use of slave labour and political imprisonment.