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Group
Wants Demands Met to End Thai Hospital Siege
08:49 a.m. Jan 24, 2000 Eastern RATCHABURI, Thailand (Reuters) - One of 10 gunmen from a Myanmar guerrilla faction holding hundreds of hostages at a provincial hospital in western Thailand said on Monday the siege would end only after his group's demands were met. ``The Thai authorities have received our five-point demand but have not accepted them,'' the gunman, who identified himself as ``Knui,'' told Thailand's Independent Television by telephone from inside the hospital compound. ``We will go back (to the border) when our demands are met, when we reach an agreement. We still don't have any definite plan on how to return. Asked why his group had resorted to seizing the hospital instead of holding talks with Thai officials on their plight, he said: ``We are negotiating nicely and we don't harm anybody. Today we have released many hostages. We don't hurt anybody.'' The gunmen from ``God's Army,'' a Karen guerrilla faction led by 12-year-old twins, have so far freed about 50 hostages most of them elderly. They allowed the releases after Thai army chief General Surayudh Julanond said he had ordered his troops to stop shelling the guerrillas' base on the Myanmar border as demanded. He added Thailand would also allow unarmed refugees from the fighting to cross the border for medical treatment. Another 17 escaped from the compound by a back door, police said. Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasert said 700 people were still in the compound while police said about 200 were in rooms directly controlled by the gunmen. The gunmen had also demanded Thailand stop helping Myanmar army attacks on them, provide doctors and nurses to treat their wounded fighters and open the border to allow them to seek relief in Thailand. They had warned they would harm hostages if a move was made to end the siege by force. |