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1.BURMESE EMBASSY SEIGE/ The Thai G



Subject: Re: 1.BURMESE EMBASSY SEIGE/ The Thai Govt is So Nice (No Refugee Status, Raids)

S.Wansai wrote:
> 
>
Can you believe this statement!What a lot of nonsense: 


"...The Thai government has every reason to be enraged. This is how its
> leniency
> with the Burmese in exile pays off. Having used Thailand as a haven,
> now
> extremist students show their gratitude by riding roughshod over Thai
> law
> and sovereignty..."

And the Thai's are partners of the Yadana pipeline etc etc etc!!!

 THE NATION - October 2, 1999
> 
> Headlines
> 
> 'Warriors' show mixed characters
> 
> THEY hurt at least one hostage and shot at a fleeing man but were
> reportedly
> kind to most of the rest. They responded to initial attempts at
> negotiations
> with gunfire and as tension mounted they allegedly threatened to start
> shooting the captives, though police denied this.
> 
> Yet their demands are the same ones repeatedly made by the world
> community
> and rejected to its dismay by the Burmese junta.
> 
> Who are these 12 ''warriors'', as the young terrorists call
> themselves?
> Burmese student groups active in Thailand have distanced themselves
> from the
> group. Thai police and intelligence officials, it appears, are still
> struggling to find their identities.
> 
> ''They shot at me when I was running away,'' said Polphan Laksanasut,
> 28,
> who was inside the visa section of the embassy when the terrorists
> stormed
> in.
> 
> ''I was waiting for a visa for my boss when I heard a commotion. Then
> I saw
> Thais and foreigners, about 20 of them, herded into the visa waiting
> room,
> followed by a group of armed people. The men in control spoke in
> Burmese,
> and one man, a Thai official apparently, told us that the gunmen
> wanted us
> to lie down and follow their orders,'' Polphan said.
> 
> He decided to run past the group out of the door towards the Pan Road
> gate.
> Polphan said the Burmese rebels had shot at him twice but missed.
> 
> One Thai hostage, an embassy worker who identified herself as Pattaya,
> told
> reporters on the phone that the captors were not aggressive.
> 
> ''There has been no violence so far,'' the woman said. ''The Burmese
> students told everyone not to panic, vowing not to hurt Thai people.
> They
> said they just wanted the Thai government's help to convey their
> messages.
> They made no threat to us and allowed us to talk to relatives who
> called the
> embassy.''
> 
> She added that gunshots heard had actually been fired to break through
> locked doors.
> 
> Pol Pte Thanomsak Amorndet, who manned the embassy's Pan Road gate,
> was hit
> with a gun by a terrorist but later set free.
> 
> ''There were too many of them, and they were all armed. There was
> nothing I
> could do,'' he said.
> 
> To Thai authorities the blitz, carried out in a swift and brazen
> manner, was
> a big slap in the face. While nobody knows how the real-life drama
> will end,
> one thing is certain: the warriors' seizure of the Burmese embassy
> will give
> their exiled pro-democracy compatriots a much harder time in Thailand.
> 
> The Thai government has every reason to be enraged. This is how its
> leniency
> with the Burmese in exile pays off. Having used Thailand as a haven,
> now
> extremist students show their gratitude by riding roughshod over Thai
> law
> and sovereignty.
> 
> But the government clearly does not want a bloodbath. Diplomatic
> efforts
> were in full swing last night, and TV stations were even asked not to
> broadcast movements outside the embassy.
> 
> Throughout the day traffic on South Sathorn Road barely crawled as
> police
> blocked off North Sathorn Road. Local residents and workers from
> nearby
> office buildings went up on rooftops to observe the stand-off between
> hundreds of Thai police and the armed men.
> 
> By early afternoon the nearby Bayer building was turned into a
> temporary
> command post for the Thai police as workers there were given the
> afternoon
> off.
> 
> Curious onlookers on motorbikes on the opposite side of the road had
> to be
> moved on by traffic police as they were holding up the already
> congested
> traffic on South Sathorn.
> 
> Swat teams arrived on the scene at about 1 pm, and police snipers were
> seen
> rushing to rooftops on nearby buildings after that.
> 
> Hope for a breakthrough in the negotiations surfaced when a Burmese
> refugee
> leader, Soe Aung, arrived on the scene to negotiate on behalf of the
> authorities, but his pleas were met with the sound of gunshots that
> effectively silenced him despite the loudspeaker through which he was
> speaking.
> 
> Food vendors who positioned themselves not too far from the scene were
> doing
> good business as hungry reporters, some of whom were still soaked from
> the
> afternoon rain, stocked up for what looked like being a long evening.
> 
> In an attempt to find a peaceful end to the crisis, Chalida
> Tacharoensuk of
> Forum Asia had earlier in the day talked by phone with one of the
> terrorists, named Johnny.
> 
> Chalida was apparently trying to act as a mediator to bring a
> representative
> of the armed group to talk to Thai authorities, but as of late last
> night
> nobody knew for sure who the terrorists were. A well-informed source
> said
> there was a good possibility that San Naing, codenamed Ye Thi Ha, was
> among
> the terrorists. San Naing is one of the two Burmese who hijacked a
> Burmese
> domestic flight to Thailand in October 1989.
> 
> Whoever they are, the terrorists formed a dramatic plot to go after
> Burmese
> Ambassador Hla Maung when they stormed in. They reportedly just missed
> him
> as he had left the embassy only moments before.
> 
> BY DON PATHAN
> 
> ****************************************************************************