AFP : Myanmar FM thanks Thailand

[euburma@xxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar FM thanks Thailand after hostage crisis

    BANGKOK, Oct 4 (AFP) - Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung on a brief 
visit Monday thanked Thailand for peacefully solving the hostage crisis at 
its embassy here.   Win Aung conveyed the junta's appreciation in a meeting 
with his Thai counterpart Surin Pitsuwan.
    "He thanked the government for solving the problem without violence and 
said Myanmar was satisfied," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
    Five gunmen, claiming to be pro-democracy students, stormed the Myanmar 
embassy here Friday, taking nearly 40 hostages and holding them for more 
than 24-hours, before being supplied by Thailand with an escape helicopter 
to the border.
    In a statement released earlier in the day, the junta reserved special 
venom for comments by Thailand's interior minister, Sanan Kachonprasart, 
who after the hostage crisis ended called the gunmen "democracy fighters" 
rather than terrorists.
    "One wonders at any point during the entire siege of the embassy, if 
the trigger-happy gunmen's ... activity resulted in death of not only the 
embassy staff but families including children, can they still be regarded 
as 'not terrorists, but students who are fighting for democracy'," the 
statement said.
    "It is still of grave concern to the diplomatic community around the 
world to realise that armed terrorism if carried out under the pretext of a 
certain disguise is acceptable ... There will be no effective way of 
preventing terrorist activities being repeated and spawned."
    Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said the country's anti-terrorist panel 
would meet on Wednesday to discuss the crisis and the Ratchaburi detention 
centre near the border with Myanmar. The centre is where the interior 
ministry hold many students and others who have fled Myanmar. The gunmen 
had asked to speak to a student leader being held there. Chuan said 
measures needed to be taken to boost security, as intelligence agencies 
here had no advance warning of the embassy raid.   Foreign Ministry 
spokesman Don Pramudhvinai said the closure of the border by Myanmar on 
Saturday had been a security precaution and Thailand hoped to see it open 
again soon. (AFP)

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