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The Nation (3-10-99) No. 5
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<font size=5><b>Reluctant hero steals the thunder<br>
</font></b><font size=3>PRIME Minister Chuan Leekpai set the policy,
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart was the troubleshooter, but Deputy
Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra stole the show in the Burmese
Embassy occupation. <br>
Sukhumbhand has entered the public spotlight for volunteering to be taken
at gunpoint by the five Burmese Embassy hostage-takers and flown by
helicopter to a Ratchaburi forest near the Thai-Burmese border. <br>
The opportunity for heroism initially landed in the lap of Sanan, but he
recommended Sukhumbhand and another official, Chaiyapruek Sawaengcharoen,
as replacements for the 30 hostages the Burmese dissidents had threatened
to take with them as their guarantee of safe passage out of the country.
<br>
After returning from this risky mission, Sukhumbhand admitted to having
been afraid but pointed out that all had ended well. <br>
''We didn't talk much, because it was rather tense in the helicopter.
With guns pointing at our heads, no one was in the mood for
conversation,'' he said. <br>
He defended the government's policy of granting safe passage to the
hostage-takers, arguing that it had led to a peaceful and speedy end to
the incident. <br>
''The country needed to finish the embassy occupation quickly as it
approached the celebrations for His Majesty's birthday,'' Sukhumbhand
said. <br>
Chuan, Sanan, police and hundreds of other officials spent a day and a
sleepless night trying to resolve the hostage situation, but the public's
hero was Sukhumbhand. They were in awe of his bravery in his hourlong,
high-profile mission. <br>
After the 25-hour occupation, Sukhumbhand went with the hostage-takers to
the release point, arriving at Ratchaburi at 3 pm. <br>
While the Burmese dissidents walked off into Burma, the deputy minister
remained on board the helicopter and waited for it to be refuelled before
returning to Bangkok his mission completed. <br>
After his helicopter touched down in Bangkok at 4.25 pm, Sukhumbhand
appeared relieved, even cheerful, as he recounted his experience. <br>
''This year is an auspicious year, and I didn't want anyone hurt or
killed, so I volunteered myself as a hostage to replace the other
hostages,'' he said. <br>
''I did not inform anyone, not even my wife, about my decision, because I
had confidence in the benevolence of His Majesty as my protection,'' he
added. <br>
He said the government had achieved its main aim of seeing there were no
casualties among the hostages. <br>
Sukhumbhand was modest about the role he had played in the crisis. <br>
''I was not thinking about becoming a hero,'' he said. <br>
The Nation</font>
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