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Bangkok Post (3-10-99) No. 1



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<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=6><b>Hostage - takers cross to
Burma<br>
</font></b><font size=5><i>All captives freed after ense moment<br>
</font></i><font size=3><b>Post Reporters<br>
</font><font size=5>A</font></b><font size=3>fter a 25-hour tense
stand-off, the five Burmese dissident students yesterday ended their
siege of the Burmese embassy and freed all the 38 hostages before they
were flown to the Burmese border in Ratchaburi in the company of M.R.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the deputy foreign minister.<br>
The students later crossed into Burma.<br>
The embassy seige, the second in 27 years after the seizure of the
Israeli embassy in 1972 by a splinter Palestinian terrorist group, known
as the Black September, prompted M.R. Sukhumbhand to call for all parties
concerned, including foreign embassies in Thailand, to review the
security system to ensure that such an incident is not allowed to be
repeated.<br>
Echoing security concerns, Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart who
played a pivotal role in negotiating a peaceful end to the hostage drama,
said the incident would serve as an &quot;expensive lesson&quot; for
Thailand.<br>
&quot;The first priority is to tighten the monitoring of people from
neighbouring countries who are engaged in political activities in
Thailand,&quot; he said.<br>
The first sign of a breakthrough in the hostage drama was evident at
about 8.30am yesterday when the hostage takers agreed to free one of the
hostages, 21-year old Mrs Wannarat Udomsamut who is four months pregnant.
Shortly afterwards, another Burmese hostage was also released. Mrs
Wannarat was freed after she complained of stomach pains.<br>
Negotiations between the heavily armed Burmese dissident students and
Thai authorities, headed by Maj-Gen Sanan, resumed yesterday morning
after both sides called off talks around midnight on Friday.<br>
Police said the Burmese students had demanded that they be flown by
helicopter with some of the hostages as a guarantee for their safe
passage to the Thai-Burmese border. Thai authorities accepted their
demand but wanted all the hostages to be freed unharmed.<br>
Police said the students then demanded that the helicopters be told to
land in the embassy compound. A saw was then handed to the students as
demanded to cut off the flagpole to pave way for the landing of the
copters.<br>
At first, the Thai negotiators wanted the copters to land at the nearby
Bangkok Christian College. But this was rejected by the dissident
students who insisted that the helicopters could land in the
embassy.<br>
Eventually, the negotiating team agreed to the demand and a police
chopper was ordered to try to make a landing on the embassy grounds. The
pilot tried unsuccessfully and finally headed back to Bangkok Christian
College.<br>
At about noon, two vans moved into the embassy to pick up the five
Burmese students and some of the hostages for a short van ride to the
college where two copters were supposed to be on standby to fly them to
the Burmese border in Ratchaburi province.<br>
Trouble started however when one of the students riding in one of the two
vans fired two shots when the van was stopped at a police roadblock. One
of the Thai hostages, Prasert Lueng-aramvej, who had acted as a middleman
between the Burmese students and Thai authorities then called the Thai
officials to question the location of the helicopters, saying the
students were jittery.<br>
Mr Prasert was told by the interior minister that two helicopters were
waiting at the Armed Forces Academy Preparatory School and was asked to
pass on his message to the Burmese students that all the hostages must be
freed and that M.R. Sukhumbhand had agreed to offer himself as a hostage
in exchange for their release. The deal was accepted.<br>
After the release of all the hostages, M.R. Sukhumbhand boarded a
helicopter with the five Burmese students for the flight to Ratchaburi.
About half an hour later, the aircraft landed in Ban Kluey district where
the students took off and crossed to Burma</font>
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