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Guerrilla
attack on Thai hospital hits raw nerve
06:55 a.m. Jan 24, 2000 Eastern By Rajan Moses BANGKOK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Thailand, angry and red-faced after ethnic Karen dissidents staged a second hostage siege on its soil within months, is vowing to review its safe-haven status for Myanmar exiles and students. The attack on a provincial hospital took place four months after dissidents linked to the same ``God's Army'' faction seized Yangon's embassy in Bangkok, and officials said it would hasten changes in the way Thailand treated hundreds of Myanmar dissidents who have fled military repression at home. Gunmen, said to number around 10, stormed a hospital at Ratchaburi, 120 km (75 miles) west of Bangkok, on Monday morning and took about 500 medical staff and patients hostage, officials said. ``This must be embarrassing for the Thais, especially coming so soon after the embassy attack,'' said a diplomat who did not want to be identified. Myanmar, still angered by the attack on its embassy in Bangkok in October, demanded the attackers be branded terrorists. ``It is about time these armed men are treated as terrorists by the international community,'' a spokesman for the military government told Reuters from Yangon. Many irate Thais calling into local radio and television station talk shows urged tough government action this time. The five armed Myanmar dissidents who seized the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok last October took refuge with God's Army after being allowed safe passage to the border by the Thai authorities when they freed their hostages unharmed. Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart provoked angry responses from the Myanmar government and the Thai opposition by saying then that the embassy attackers were not terrorists but radical student activists fighting for democracy. MINISTER VOWS TO GET TOUGH On Monday, Sanan changed his tune and vowed tough action against the group, a stance echoed by other officials. ``This is a hospital, a place that even the real enemy normally don't inflict damage, or terrorise or seize,'' said Prasong Soonsiri, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's security adviser and former head of the Thai National Security Council. ``This breaks international laws, not to mention Thai laws. ``I have briefed the prime minister. I told him that we cannot resolve this incident in the same way as we had resolved the embassy seizure incident. This involves Thai laws. In short, they are way out of line,'' he said. Thai authorities have been gradually restricting the movements of Myanmar dissidents and exiles since the attack on the Myanmar embassy. In this case, analysts believe the Thai authorities will not repatriate the dissidents to Myanmar, but would rather insist that Western countries sympathetic to their cause step up their resettlement in third countries. The Thais could launch operations to round up any more dissidents and further restrict their movement by placing them in more holding centres. Finally, the Thai military could take the offensive and block border access to suspected guerrillas while pounding their jungle bases to discourage them from launching offensives inside Thailand and forcing them to flee deeper into Myanmar territory. CHILD SOLDIERS Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra, whom the embassy attackers took along as a guarantor for their safe passage out of Bangkok and later freed, said: ``The Thai government will have to review its policies in dealing with such actions taken by minority groups. But I cannot immediately say what the changes would be.'' The God's Army faction, which broke from the Karen National Union guerrillas, is a band of about 100 Christian fighters based inside Myanmar opposite Ratchaburi and groups ethnic guerrillas, former Myanmar students and child soldiers. It is led by 12-year-old twins -- Johnny and Luther Htoo. The gunmen at the hospital demanded in talks with negotiators that the Thai army stop firing into their guerrilla base on the Myanmar border, give medical help to their wounded and sick colleagues and allow them free access at the border. Chaiwat Khamchoo, a political science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said the government would have to get tough. ``The government will have to demonstrate more assertiveness and get tough.'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai said the method the group chose to press its demands was wrong. ``We have, up to now, always based our treatment of these ethnic groups on humanitarian grounds. We may have to sit down with other agencies to review whether there would be any change in this policy.'' |