AP-Myanmar Closes Border With Thail

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Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AP-Myanmar Closes Border With Thailand

Monday October 4 5:12 AM ET

Myanmar Closes Border With Thailand
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thailand is considering new restrictions on
anti-Myanmar dissidents living here after armed rebels seized the Myanmar
Embassy in Bangkok in a dramatic 26-hour siege.

The embassy in the Thai capital was back open today under heavy security
less than two days after the standoff ended.

Five ex-student rebels armed with AK-47s and grenades took over the embassy
Friday before releasing all 38 hostages Saturday in return for safe passage
by helicopter to the Thai-Myanmar border.

Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai called a meeting of an anti-terrorism
committee for Wednesday to assess security and to examine what should be
done with 3,000 Myanmar student exiles living in Thailand, the Bangkok Post
said.

Tens of thousands of Myanmar nationals have fled repression in their
homeland, also known as Burma, to Thailand over the past 11 years.

Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart warned that Thailand would get tough
on dissidents living here.

``We have not been vigilant or strict with them so far. What happened on
Oct. 1-2 was a big price to pay and the most valuable lesson we could learn
from being kind to these people,'' Sanan was quoted as saying by The Nation
daily.

Myanmar opposition groups, fearing a backlash, have been anxious to distance
themselves from the rebel group, the ``Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,''
and have appealed to Thailand to avoid a clampdown.

Myanmar's military regime, meanwhile, claimed that some foreign hostages
were actually there in collaboration with the rebels. An official statement
said ``some foreigners'' were in the embassy ``in guise of visa applicants,
with the prior arrangements with the terrorists.'' It did not specify which
foreigners.

There has been no independent evidence supporting the claim, although
several Western hostages afterwards expressed sympathy for the rebels and
their cause.