NEWS - Myanmar May Shift Part of Em

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar May Shift Part of Embassy after Siege

Myanmar May Shift Part of Embassy after Siege

BANGKOK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Myanmar is considering moving the visa
section of its embassy in Bangkok to another site as a security measure
after dissidents raided the mission and took hostages early this month,
a Myanmar diplomat said on Tuesday. 

"The embassy is not moving anywhere, but maybe in the long-run we will
have a separate place for the visa section," the diplomat told Reuters.
"We don't know yet, it's just an idea, but we do have other plots of
land. 

"For the time being we are not doing anything, and if we do decide to do
it, it will take some time." 

Five armed Myanmar dissidents exposed security weaknesses at the embassy
in Bangkok's main business district on October 1 when they burst into
the compound and held 89 people hostage, including many diplomats and
their families, for 25 hours. 

The gunmen entered the embassy via the visa section entrance, and many
of the hostages were foreigners collecting or applying for visas. 

Moving the visa section would effectively separate most diplomats from
the public area of the embassy. 

The attackers freed all the hostages unharmed after the Thai government
provided a getaway helicopter to take the gunmen to a safe area on the
Thai-Myanmar border.