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Embassy raiders remain elusive

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<font size=4>Embassy raiders remain elusive <br>
</font><font size=3>THREE days after the dramatic 25-hour hostage crisis
at the Burmese Embassy, Thai authorities are still at a loss in their
efforts to establish the identities of the five armed Burmese militants
who were given safe passage last Saturday in exchange for the release of
89 Burmese diplomats and foreigners. <br>
They were also trying to establish the assailants' connection with an
unidentified armed group which had cheerfully greeted them when a Thai
helicopter dropped them some 500 metres inside Burma at an area known as
Kamaplaw. Kamaplaw is over the border from Thailand's Suan Phung district
in western Ratchaburi province. <br>
According to a well-informed source who is familiar with western border
activities, two small armed groups, the God Army and the Karen National
Union Youth (KNU-Youth), are active in the Kamaplaw area. Although
another small group known as the Karen Solidarity Organisation (KSO), led
by Mahn Robert Ba Zan, who is the son of the late Karen leader Mahn Ba
Zan, has had a presence in the jungle neighbourhood, the source ruled out
KSO involvement in the embassy attack. <br>
Mahn Robert Ba Zan left the Karen National Union, the armed guerrilla
movement which has been fighting for greater autonomy from Rangoon since
Burma's independence from Britain in 1948, after a high-level clash over
the policy of negotiations with the Burmese junta. The KSO is not known
to be active in guerrilla operations. <br>
The source said he had heard that the hostage-takers, who called
themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, had contacted the KSO
but that the KSO was unable to help because it did not have any armed
forces. <br>
The source added that it was not yet known whether either of the two
other groups, the KNU-Youth and the God Army, had given the
hostage-takers a warm welcome when they were set free in the Kamaplaw
area. <br>
The KNU-Youth is a Buddhist-dominated organisation. The God Army was
formed by a group of disgruntled Karen villagers seeking revenge for the
Burmese Army's major attack and capture of the KNU's 4th Brigade
headquarters in early 1997. The Burmese military offensive displaced the
whole Karen population living in the rugged border terrain opposite
Kanchanaburi province. <br>
Many of the refugees who fled to Thailand were later repatriated and
resettled in another border area opposite Ratchaburi province, far south
of their traditional homes, which were in the way of major economic
development projects, including the multi-billion dollar Yadana gas
pipeline and the highway between western Thailand and the Burmese port of
Tavoy. <br>
Following the fall of the KNU's 4th Brigade headquarters and the failure
of the KNU forces to protect the civilian population, the villagers
decided to arm themselves to protect their own interests and for safety
from Burmese troops, said the source. The Christian-dominated God Army is
thought to have 150 to 200 armed men. ''They are very simple villagers
who decided to take up arms and fight the Burmese,'' said the source.
<br>
Thai authorities are trying to establish contact with the groups to find
out if the five Burmese assailants are living with either of them. Thai
police plan to issue arrest warrants for the hostage-takers. <br>
Yesterday the authorities were able to establish the identities of only
two Burmese hostage-takers, Gyaw Ni or San Gyaw Gyaw Oo and Prida or
Myint Thein. The three other collaborators were believed to be young
ethnic Karen from the border area. <br>
Chaiyapreuk Sawaengcharoen, a senior official of the Correction
Department and a former chief of the Maneeloy holding centre for Burmese
asylum-seekers in Ratchaburi, who flew with the hostage-takers to the
border, recognised both Gyaw Ni and Prida, both of whom had at one time
lived in Maneeloy camp. <br>
In a statement dated Aug 29, 1999 announcing the establishment of the
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, Gyaw Ni and Myint Thein are identified
as among the 18 founding members. The statement, which gave the group's
intention as joining forces to establish democracy in Burma, also
included the names of three members living outside both Thailand and
Burma, Ye Thu Naing (Australia), Tin Khaik (Japan), and Than Htay
(Canada). <br>
The name San Naing is also mentioned in the list of committee members. It
is not yet known if it is the same San Naing, or Ye Thi Ha, who along
with fellow student Ye Yint hijacked a Burmese domestic flight to
Thailand in October 1989. </font>
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