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Gunmen free 23 hostages and fly out



Reply-To: "koko" <koko@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Gunmen free 23 hostages and fly out of Bangkok holding Thai minister

Thailand-Myanmar,sched-4thlead
   Gunmen free 23 hostages and fly out of Bangkok holding Thai minister
   by Gina Wilkinson
   ATTENTION - ADDS helicopter flies out, quotes ///

   BANGKOK, Oct 2 (AFP) - Gunmen who stormed the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok
to
protest at the country's military rule freed 23 hostages Saturday as they
boarded a helicopter with a Thai government minister and flew out of the
capital.
   One helicopter took off from a school yard in central Bangkok, carrying
five gunmen, Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra and one
other
official, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
   Before boarding the helicopter the gunmen released 23 hostages which they
had transported with them at gunpoint to the makeshift helipad earlier
Saturday.
   Thai Interior Minister Sanan Kachonprasart said Sukhumbhand had offered
himself in exchange for the hostages.
   A second helicopter was standing by to transport the rest of the 12
gunmen,
who have demanded safe passage to the Thai-Myanmar border.
   The hostages had been held for more than 24 hours since the group calling
itself the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors" took over the Myanmar embassy
compound. There have been no reports of any casualties.
   Earlier one hostage being taken to the school yard in two vans told local
radio by mobile telephone: "They are still pointing the guns at us. We need
the helicopter now."
   Police delivered two vans to the embassy around noon Saturday. Minutes
later four shots were fired before the vans sped from the scene.
   Six other hostages fled the embassy compound shortly after the vans
departed, witnesses said.
   The group seized the embassy around noon Friday and threatened to execute
one captive every half hour unless their demands for helicopters were met.
   Earlier Saturday the gunmen released two hostages -- a pregnant Thai
woman
and a Myanmar man, who appeared unwell. Three other people either escaped or
were released Friday.
   Police said the gunmen were armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades.
   A statement faxed from inside the embassy said the attackers were willing
to "die in action".
   "Eleven years after (the) nationwide democracy uprising Burma remains
under
the oppressive military regime and the people are denied democracy and human
rights," the statement said, using the former name for Myanmar.
   Earlier one of the hostage-takers, identifying himself as "Johnny", told
AFP by telephone: "If our demand is not met we will have to kill (them).
These
people they are as good as dead."
   Outside, army anti-terrorist troops and ambulances joined hundreds of
police surrounding the embassy.
   Myanmar student dissidents living in Thailand have denied any link with
the
armed group inside the compound.
   They said they knew of the leader "Johnny," whose real name was believed
to
be Kyaw Oo, a 30-year-old former military cadet and warned his threat to
kill
the hostages was likely to be serious.
   The gunmen have also demanded Myanmar's military junta enter talks with
the
National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
   The NLD won 1990 elections, which were ignored by the military, but has
consistently rejected the use of force to bring about democratic change.
   The United States has condemned the embassy attack.
   "We strongly condemn this terrorist attack on a diplomatic establishment
and the taking of hostages, regardless of the perpetrators' motives or
demands," State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters in
Washington.
   Thai officials earlier named 13 Myanmar diplomats who were believed to be
among the hostages captured Friday but said ambassador Hla Maung and six
other
envoys were not there when it was stormed.
   Nationals from Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore,
India
and Japan were also thought to be among the original hostages, officials
said.
   Some 15 to 20 Thais had also been inside the building, according to
police.
   The junta in Yangon has been condemned around the world for widespread
human rights abuses including the systematic rape and torture of ethnic
minorities, the use of slave labour and political imprisonment.
   gw-bur/de/ajp