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BURMESE EMBASSY SIEGE (Today)



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BURMESE EMBASSY SIEGE<br>
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Sanan comes under heavy fire from Rangoon junta<br>
</font><font size=5><i>Accused of leniency with the 'terrorists'<br>
<br>
</font></i><font size=3>Temsak Traisophon <br>
</font><font size=5>T</font></b><font size=3>he Burmese junta yesterday
bitterly attacked Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart for having
offered the five Burmese hostage-takers a safe passage to the
Thai-Burmese border.<br>
&quot;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',&quot;
said a statement issued in Rangoon.<br>
&quot;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.&quot;<br>
Earlier, the interior minister said relations between Bangkok and Rangoon
would not be harmed by different viewpoints over Friday's Burmese embassy
siege in which dozens of people were taken hostage by five heavily-armed
Burmese dissident students.<br>
Maj-Gen Sanan said he believed the fact Rangoon had dubbed the five
dissident students &quot;terrorists&quot; while Bangkok had merely
considered them &quot;aggressive students&quot; would not affect their
neighbourly ties.<br>
Maj-Gen Sanan was unaware of yesterday's attack by the junta. But he said
authorities had carefully checked before coming to the conclusion that
the five were not terrorists. He called them students who were demanding
democracy in Burma.<br>
The minister insisted that Burmese authorities had raised no objections
against Thai rescue operations and given Thai officials a free hand to
find a peaceful solution to the crisis.<br>
According to him, Thai authorities were in touch at all hours through a
hot line with Burma's deputy foreign minister and national police chief
for consultations until the end of the hostage drama.<br>
Human rights and democracy groups have praised the Thai government for
seeking a peaceful solution to the Burmese embassy siege in which all
hostages were rescued unhurt.<br>
The groups included the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the
Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, the Coordinating Committee
of Thai NGOs on Human Rights, the Union for Civil Liberty, the Student
Confederation of Thailand and the so-called Borderless Friends.<br>
In the statement, the groups expressed appreciation to the prime
minister, the interior minister, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Royal
Thai Police Office, and others involved.<br>
They also lauded Deputy Foreign Minister M.R.Sukhumbhand Paribatra and
Chaipruek Sawaengcharoen, a Corrections Department official, for risking
their lives by taking a helicopter ride with the five Burmese in place of
the hostages.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=6><b>Burma keeps Mae Sai border shut<br>
</font><font size=5><i>But is expected to reopen it very soon<br>
<br>
</font></i><font size=3>Theerawat Khamthita <br>
</font><font size=5>B</font></b><font size=3>urmese authorities kept the
Mae Sai district border in Chiang Rai province closed for the third
straight day yesterday.<br>
However, the closure should not last long because &quot;their own people
are suffering,&quot; according to the Mae Sai district chief.<br>
Mae Sai chief Thavorn Cherdphan has been told by Burmese officials in
Tachilek that the Burmese government wanted the border to remain closed
for the time being for security reasons in the wake of the hostage-taking
at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok late last week.<br>
Under government orders, Burmese soldiers strictly sealed off their bank
of the Mae Sai river border which divides Mae Sai and Tachilek.<br>
However, Mr Thavorn does not think the closure would last too long.<br>
&quot;Tachilek officials have said they want the border to open soon
because their people have started running out of oil and consumer goods,
and business in Tachilek is much less active because Thai visitors cannot
cross the border.&quot;<br>
The Mae Sai district chief expects the border to open within this week
because there is no sign of any possible violence being sparked by
Burmese dissident students in the area.<br>
He noted that Burmese authorities should have informed the Thai side of
the border closure in advance and he would raise the issue with Burmese
border committee officials in their next meeting.<br>
Meanwhile, Charoen Shinarangsee, vice chairman of the Chiang Rai chamber
of commerce, admitted that the border closure was affecting cross-border
trade that was usually estimated at over 10 million baht a day.<br>
&quot;The border closure will not last long as another bridge is planned
across the Mae Sai river to facilitate border trade in the near
future,&quot; he said.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=6><b>Five hostage-takers' grouping identified<br>
</font><font size=5><i>Students' front split over ideological row<br>
<br>
</font></i><font size=3>Anucha Charoenpo <br>
</font><font size=5>F</font></b><font size=3>ive Burmese dissidents
calling themselves the &quot;Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors&quot;
after seizing the Burmese embassy on Friday were from the All Burma
Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), a source from a state intelligence
agency confirmed yesterday.<br>
Because of ideological conflicts, about 20 Burmese armed dissidents last
month separated themselves from the ABSDF which advocates non-violence
principles, said a source.<br>
The breakaway group wanted to make known to the local and international
community of the political problems plaguing their country. They believe
that the non-violence approach to the plight of their countrymen would
not bring democracy to Burma.<br>
In planning the siege, these 20 Burmese dissidents met at Maneeloy hold
ing camp in Suan Phueng district of Ratchaburi several times. They had
earlier discussed the possiblilty of either holding the staff at embassy
hostage on 'all-nine days' (9/9/99) and or to plant bombs in
Rangoon.<br>
The source said half of them backed out leaving the remaining students
who planned and carried out the hostage-taking at the Burmese embassy
last Friday.<br>
Actually there would have been more Burmese captors at the embassy but
the hostage taking was hurriedly planned and executed, the source
said.<br>
The source identified the five Burmese dissidents as: Kyaw Oo (also known
as Johnny), Ye Thi Ha (alias San Naing), Myint Oo (alias Me Da, also
known as Preeda), Min Nyo (alias Ni Ni), and Jimmy.<br>
Kyaw Oo, 30, was a first year military academy student who fled to take
refuge in Thailand after the 1988 coup by the State Law and Order
Restoration Council. He is an explosives expert and was assigned to train
a new batch of students belonging to the ABSDF.<br>
Ye Thi Ha or San Naing, 33, hijacked the Union of Burma Airways flight to
the U-Tapao airbase in 1989 to demand democracy in his country and the
release of opposition leader Aung San Su Kyi, who was then under house
arrest. He was also arrested in 1995 for possession of a bomb while
living in the Din Daeng area.<br>
Myint Oo, 29, was a first-year student at Rangoon University when he fled
to Thailand in 1988. Little else is known about him.<br>
The authorities have no information on Min Nyo and Jimmy and are checking
their background and how the two entered and became involved with the
anti-Rangoon groups.<br>
The source said the tourism policy of the country should be reviewed as
it is only concerned with increasing the number of foreign tourists. This
was a loophole for international terrorists to slip in.<br>
Concerned state agencies should think about the matter in order to stop
possible recurrences of such violent incidents, he added.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=6><b>Poor intelligence blamed for failure to curb arms
smuggling<br>
</font><font size=5><i>All-round revamp in order, says Surayud<br>
<br>
</i>P</font></b><font size=3>oor intelligence is to blame for the
authorities' failure to curb the smuggling of war weapons, some of which
were reportedly made available to the Burmese students involved in the
weekend hostage-taking, the army chief said yesterday.<br>
An all-round revamp in methods of border patrol and security operations
was in order, Gen Surayud Chulanont said.<br>
The improvement, however, would have to be initiated by the government
with the army playing a supporting role, he said.<br>
The supervision of Burmese refugee holding centres near the border comes
under the Interior Ministry's jurisdiction while the military's job is to
concentrate on patrolling the border.<br>
He was responding to calls for tightened security at the centres after
some of the refugees were accused of secretly backing the five Burmese
students who seized the Burmese embassy and held dozens of people
hostage.<br>
The 25-hour crisis ended without bloodshed on Saturday with the
hostage-takers being flown by helicopter to the border in
Ratchaburi.<br>
The &quot;escape flight&quot; was arranged by Thai authorities to meet
the students' demand for a safe passage. On board was M.R. Sukhumbhand
Paribatra, the deputy foreign minister, who volunteered to trade places
with the hostages and accompany the students to the border. <br>
Gen Surayud said the students had crossed into Burma to an unknown
sanctuary. <br>
It was unclear where they got hold of the weapons used in the embassy
raid.<br>
He said the firearms were deployed in vast numbers by the anti-Rangoon
minority rebels active along the Thai-Burmese border.<br>
The weapons could have been smuggled in despite tough measures to control
them. <br>
He conceded it was an uphill task preventing weapons smuggling when
little has been done to catch Burmese migrants slipping into
Thailand.<br>
Gen Surayud maintained the government did not assist the anti-Rangoon
movements by &quot;permitting&quot; them to take over the embassy and by
refusing to label the hostage-takers &quot;terrorists&quot;.<br>
On the contrary, he said, the authorities managed to bring a peaceful
conclusion to the stand-off within 20 hours and credit was due for such
efforts.<br>
But Gen Surayud stressed the monitoring of Burmese activists involved in
protests here against their government would likely be reviewed.<br>
They were political asylum seekers who should not resort to violence in
conducting their activities. Such acts are in defiance of the conditions
under which they were granted refuge.<br>
The army chief added it was up to Rangoon when they would reopen their
border channels opposite Tak and Chiang Rai which it ordered closed since
the hostage crisis broke out on Friday.<br>
<br>
</font><font size=6><b>Police to issue arrest warrants<br>
</font><font size=5><i>'Warriors' clearly broke Thai laws<br>
<br>
</font></i><font size=3>Wassayos Ngarmkham and Anucha Charoenpo <br>
</font><font size=5>W</font></b><font size=3>arrants will be issued for
the arrest of the five Burmese embassy raiders who face numerous charges
including a possible charge of helicopter hijacking, the Bangkok police
chief said yesterday.<br>
Pol Lt-Gen Wannarat Kotcharak said he sees no hurdles in issuing arrest
warrants because the dissident students, who called themselves the
Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors, clearly broke Thai laws.<br>
But police have still to confirm the identity of the attackers including
the one called Johnny, he said.<br>
Authorities on the Thai-Burmese border were ordered to be on a look-out
for the five who held 38 Thais and foreigners hostage for more than 24
hours.<br>
&quot;Once the warrants are out, these people will be arrested when they
enter the country. Without a doubt, they have broken Thai laws,&quot;
said the commissioner.<br>
He said police have cleared the Burmese embassy and found ammunition
shells and the guitar cases used to hide the weapons when the five
entered the embassy on Sathorn Road on Friday.<br>
According to the city police chief, the dissident students had acted
alone without any outside assistance.<br>
He said while most of the hostages did not take the situation very
seriously because they were well- treated by the students, the Burmese
hostages were very nervous.<br>
Pol Maj-Gen Chakthip Kunchorn na Ayutthaya, the assistant commissioner,
said yesterday charges ranging from illegal detention, illegal
possesssion of firearms, robbery and possible hijacking of a helicopter
would be pressed against them.<br>
Bangrak police have been ordered to help Yanawa police in the
investigation.<br>
A total of 19 witnesses have so far been questioned in connection with
the siege.<br>
Pol Lt-Gen Wannarat yesterday thanked and presented flowers to the
managing director of Bayer for the use of the company's building as a
temporary command centre during the embassy siege.<br>
Meanwhile, the Burmese embassy reopened for business yesterday but
visitors were not allowed to enter the embassy compound. Those coming to
pick up their visas had to do it through a gate window on Pan road.<br>
The number of Special Branch police was increased to five from three
yesterday while 191 patrol police were also posted outside the
embassy.Rounds of daily police patrols arranged by local stations were
also increased to 20 from 7.Police said that from now on, Burmese
students taking refuge in Thailand would no longer be free to hold
political gatherings and a constant watch would be kept on them<br>
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