bangkok post - embassy attack

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October 17, 1999

Gone but not forgotten SIEGE AFTERMATH: It was almost the perfect embassy 
siege. But the real trouble has just begun

Surath Jinakul

At a food shop inside a university in Bangkok one fine September afternoon, 
a group of men were engaged in a serious discussion. To avoid the prying 
ears of other students, they were seated at the far end.
But the meeting did not escape the eyes of undercover Thai policemen, who 
had been following one of the men for over two weeks.
The group leader was identified as Nyi Nyi Zaw, a 32-year-old Burmese who 
fled to Thailand after the brutal suppression of pro-democracy activists in 
Burma in September 1988.
The topic of their discussions was not known, but what transpired in the 
following weeks certainly kept Thai police officers on their toes.
They believed Nyi Nyi Zaw was linked to a faction of Burmese student rebels 
formerly based in the Maneeloy refugee camp in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung 
District, about 140 kilometres west of Bangkok, and the group might have 
been scheming against the Rangoon government following their failure to 
sabotage Burma on "all-nines day" (9 September 1999).
Intelligence reports were sent to higher authorities, and the matter seems 
to have ended there.
But on October 1, five armed men staged a daring attack on the Burmese 
Embassy in Bangkok and held 89 people hostage for 25 hours before they were 
flown to the border and set free.
One of the five hostage-takers was identified as Nyi Nyi Zaw.
What happened during the crucial weeks before the embassy takeover? How did 
Thai intelligence officers lose track of the plot to seize the embassy?In 
separate interviews with Perspective, government officials and Burma 
watchers were cautious in analysing the events leading up to the October 1 
siege and the fallout that continues to grab media attention two weeks after 
the crisis ended without bloodshed.

THE PLOT

According to intelligence sources, Nyi Nyi Zaw had another meeting with 19 
Burmese dissidents and some members of private organisations to finalise the 
embassy seizure plan at a "safe house" in the Thung Khru area of Phra 
Pradaeng, on the outskirts of Bangkok.
They did not say how the collaborators acquired the three AK-47 rifles, two 
M16 rifles and 20 hand grenades which were used in the operation.
But it appears that the operation did not proceed as planned.
It was by "sheer luck" that Ambassador U Hla Maung left for an afternoon 
function 15 minutes before the armed men stormed the embassy.
"The crisis might not have ended the way it did if the ambassador had been 
held hostage," one of the sources commented.
Secondly, it seems that other members of the group failed to arrive on time 
and could not enter the embassy compound.
Sources said police found about 10 young Burmese loitering on Pan Road, 
where there is a side entrance to the embassy's visa section. They were 
identified as hardline members of the All Burma Basic Education Students 
Union (ABBESU) and they were carrying bags containing first aid kit to be 
used during the siege.
The police stopped three of these young Burmese and released them after they 
produced cards issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees 
(UNHCR).
Coincidentally, members of a foreign intelligence agency were also seen in 
the vicinity of the embassy, the sources noted.
They could not confirm earlier statements by witnesses that at least 12 men 
were involved in the embassy attack. If there were indeed 12 hostage-takers, 
what happened to the other seven men?"It is also interesting to note that 
the five men could walk past the embassy's front gate carrying guitar cases 
that contained the rifles," a police officer noted.
He declined to comment on the theory that there were others inside the 
embassy who colluded with the hostage-takers.


TERRORISTS OR FREEDOM FIGHTERS?

Burma's military has been critical of Thailand's handling of the crisis, 
saying the authorities were too soft on the hostage-takers.
They were particularly irked by Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, who 
said the five hostage-takers were not terrorists.
"They are students who fight for democracy," Sanan told a press conference 
after the end of the 25-hour drama. "They can go anywhere they 
want..."Anti-terrorist sources said the Thai government had inadvertently 
set a "bad precedent" by opting for a measure to get the hostage-takers out 
of the country as soon as possible instead of prosecuting them for their 
crime.
"They cannot expect to have a happy ending every time a crisis like this 
happens," one of them noted.
Thai police sources said the personal records of some of the hostage-takers 
hardly qualify them as "students fighting for democracy."Nyi Nyi Zaw, for 
example, had been arrested on robbery and drug taking charges in Bangkok. He 
fled to Thailand after the 1988 crackdown by the Burmese military junta. Nyi 
Nyi Zaw, 32, joined the People's Defence Front in 1992 and was admitted into 
the Maneeloy refugee camp in Ratchaburi in 1996.
The leader of the group, Kyaw Oo, alias Johnny, 35, is an explosives expert. 
A former military academy student, he trained Burmese students who fled the 
country after the 1988 crackdown.
There were reports-later denied by Special Branch police-that one of the 
five hostage-takers was Ye Thi Ha, 33, alias San Niang, who took part in the 
hijacking of a domestic Burmese airliner which was diverted to Utapao 
airport in Thailand on 6 October 1989.
Another member of the group was identified as Myint Oo, 31, alias Me Da or 
Preeda.
He was a first-year student at Rangoon University when he fled to Thailand 
in 1988.
Police have yet to identify the other two hostage-takers, but intelligence 
sources told Perspective that they were members of an offshoot Karen faction 
fighting against Burmese troops along the border.
Another intelligence source said nearly 200 Burmese left Maneeloy camp a 
month before the hostage crisis and were trained by a militant group known 
as the Former Members of Association of Student Army (FMASA).

BURMA'S GAIN IS THAILAND'S LOSS

Burma's reaction to Thailand's "soft" handling of the hostage crisis was 
swift.
As the drama was beamed worldwide on October 1, Rangoon sealed all its land 
border crossings with Thailand and suspended all fishing concessions with 
Thai companies.
At press time on Friday afternoon, cross-border trade remained suspended. 
Thai fishermen claim they are losing about 43 million baht a day as a result 
of the ban.
But it is not only economic ties that are at stake.
In the eyes of Burma, Thai authorities made a serious mistake in letting the 
five hostage-takers go free. Ambassador U Hla Maung upped the ante on 
Wednesday by linking the normalisation of relations to the arrest and 
prosecution of the five hostage-takers.
"The sooner they are arrested, the sooner the problems will be solved," the 
ambassador said after talks with Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.
Burma's stance is not surprising. In fact, it is Rangoon which now gets the 
upper hand.
"I don't want to talk about any conspiracy theories, but everything seems to 
be playing into the hands of Burma," a police source noted.
Firstly, the embassy seizure gave Rangoon the legitimacy to seal the border 
and crack down on anti-Rangoon minority groups along the area, he said.
Secondly, the incident has discredited the student activist movements and 
forced Thailand to get tough with Burmese exiles here.
"Now the Thai government is seeking UNHCR help to send them to third 
countries," he said.
"Rangoon has literally killed two birds with one stone."In his opinion, 
Rangoon has long been wary of Burmese activists in Thailand.
"The junta can take care of problems in its own country, but it can't 
control the Burmese exiles in Thailand," the source said. "The hostage 
crisis gave them just the right card to play with."




THE ESCAPEES

Why did the five hostage-takers ask to be flown to the border in Ratchaburi 
instead of Tak as earlier requested?The helicopter reportedly made three 
unsuccessful attempts to land in three different spots along the border in 
Ratchaburi on October 2. Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who 
offered himself as a surrogate for the hostages, accompanied the five armed 
dissidents on the helicopter ride.
Finally, the helicopter landed at Huaysud pass, 40 kilometres from Suanpung 
district, at about 2.20 p.m. Thirty armed men in fatigues and 15 other men 
in civilian clothes took them across the border.
The area is believed to be controlled by a commander under Gen Bo Mya, 
leader of the Karen National Union (KNU).
Alluding to the conspiracy theory, Gen Bo Mya said on Wednesday that the 
hostage crisis was staged to give Rangoon the legitimacy to crack down on 
anti-Rangoon groups along the border.
Meanwhile, the fate of the five hostage-takers remains in doubt.
A week after branding them "students who fight for democracy", the Thai 
government issued warrants for the arrest of the dissidents. They have been 
slapped with nine serious criminal charges, including illegal detention, 
illegal possession of firearms, robbery and hijacking.
If arrested and convicted in Thailand, they could spend the rest of their 
lives in prison.
But it is unlikely that the five will ever be brought back to Thailand.
As one analyst puts it: "Who really wants them to return and spill the beans 
about what happened?"


COMMENT

Paying the price

Surath Jinakul

Now Thailand knows what happens when intelligence reports are ignored, taken 
for granted, or dismissed as routine.
Reliable sources say that intelligence reports have been filed on the 
movements of the Burmese dissidents who seized their own embassy in Bangkok 
on October 1.
The Burmese dissidents wanted to take Ambassador U Hla Maung hostage, but 
the ambassador left 15 minutes before the siege began. Was that intelligence 
or sheer luck?Thailand has been lauded for its humanitarian stance in 
relation to the Burmese dissidents. Over 90,000 Burmese reside in Thailand, 
legally or not. The Maneeloy refugee camp in Ratchaburi Province houses 
numerous Burmese student activists. NGOs, both local and foreign, assist the 
students with job training.
Adopting this kind of approach, Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart 
described the five hostage-takers as students fighting for democracy, giving 
the Burmese military government an excuse to slam the border shut and close 
its waters to Thai fishing boats.
To make matters more irksome for Rangoon, the five dissidents were given a 
ride in a Thai police helicopter to a "safe" place at the border, with 
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra standing in for the 
hostages-an act of bravery only someone who understands hostage taking and 
hijacking can fully appreciate.
International human rights activists applauded Thailand for ending the 
embassy incident without bloodshed or violence. But was it worth the 
price-economic or otherwise-that we are now paying?Fisheries Department 
chief Thammarong Prakobboon said the suspension of Thai fishing rights in 
Burmese waters will mean the loss of at least 1,000 million baht.
Furthermore, army officers say the embassy siege could give the Burmese 
military an excuse to step up action against pro-democracy and minority 
groups along the border, creating a further influx of refugees into 
Thailand.
	 

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