The Straits Times - Myanmar exiles

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Subject: The Straits Times - Myanmar exiles 'paid to free hostages' 

The Straits Times
OCT 6 1999

Myanmar exiles 'paid to free hostages'

Two of the five gunmen who attacked the embassy had been living at a Thai
holding centre for exiled Myanmar students, says Thai minister

BANGKOK -- Thailand ordered a crackdown on exiled students yesterday amid
swirling rumours about multi-million-dollar payoffs and claims that
foreigners had masterminded the hostage crisis at Myanmar's Embassy here.

Interior Minister Sanan Kachonprasart said he had received information that
two of the five gunmen who stormed the Myanmar Embassy here on Friday had
been living at a Thai holding centre for exiled Myanmar students.

The gunmen, who held almost 40 people hostage for 25 hours, said they were
pro-democracy students exiled from Myanmar.

The minister said the authorities would strictly enforce regulations
confining the exiled students to the Maneeloy holding centre near the
Thai-Myanmar border.

"Foreign visitors will be confined to designated areas and students will not
be allowed to roam free anymore," he said.

He warned that if students left the centre they would be repatriated to
Myanmar where they would be unlikely to receive a warm welcome from the
country's military rulers.

Mr Sanan said police had still not identified any of the gunmen involved in
the embassy incident.

An estimated 2,000 exiled students are based in Thailand, along with
pro-democracy groups campaigning for an end to the long-running military
rule in Myanmar.

Rumours about the gunmen began circulating in Myanmar and Thailand not long
after the five radical students disappeared into jungle near the
Thai-Myanmar border following a helicopter flight from Bangkok on Saturday.

Mr Sanan dismissed allegations by opposition politicians that the Thai
authorities had paid US$1 million (S$1.7 million) to the hostage-takers in
order to end the crisis quickly.

"We did not give the gunmen any money," the minister said.

"We gave them only a bag and a telephone. There was no money, arms, or
anything else inside the bag. It was just clothes for one of them."

But he conceded that Thailand needed to improve its intelligence network
which has been criticised for failing to detect the gunmen's plans in
advance.

"We have to improve our intelligence system in every way because in the past
we have only had to deal with problems theoretically and we had no actual
experience," he said.

Meanwhile, Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said he was unaware of
claims by Myanmar that some of the Western hostages had colluded with the
hostage-takers.

"I have no knowledge of this. It is a matter for the police," he said.

But editorials in the official Myanmar media continued to attack the Western
hostages and "foreign pay-masters" who allegedly masterminded the crisis.

Myanmar said on Monday that foreign diplomats in Bangkok had held several
meetings with anti-junta groups based in Thailand and hinted that they may
have played a role in the crisis. -- AFP