FREEDOM FIGHTERS LEAVE IN PEACE

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Gunmen Leave With Thai Officials

  
Bangkok, Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Five gunmen left in a helicopter with a Thai
Cabinet minister about 26 hours after they seized almost 40 people in a
siege at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, Thai television reported. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the lead negotiator since the
siege began, offered himself and one Interior Ministry official in exchange
for the others. About 23 hostages were freed when the helicopter left. About
a dozen others were released or escaped from the compound early today. 

The other Thai official, who wasn't identified, was with the seven other
gunmen who seized the embassy who had moved from the embassy compound in a
van to an adjacent school. 

``I offered myself as a hostage to avoid any losses,'' Sukhumbhand told
Thailand's ITV television by mobile phone from the van. He said the gunmen,
calling themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, intend to fly by
helicopter to the Thai- Myanmar border. 

``When I arrive at the border, the students will release me,'' he told ITV.
As part of their original demands, the group asked to be flown to a refugee
center at the border. 

As many as 40 hostages were taken yesterday. Among them were 13 Myanmar
embassy staff, not including the ambassador, who wasn't at the embassy, plus
about 16 Thais and at about 10 others. A German national, three French, a
Canadian, two Malaysians, two Singaporeans and one Japanese, who had been
applying for visas, were among the original hostages, The Nation newspaper
reported. 

Political Demands 

The gunmen wore black shirts, jeans and red headbands and were armed with
AK-47 rifles and hand grenades. They seized the embassy in downtown Bangkok,
next to the domestic headquarters of German chemicals producer Bayer AG,
about noon local time yesterday. 

As part of its initial demand, the group also asked for the immediate
release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma; a
``meaningful dialogue'' with opposition politicians in Myanmar; and the
formation of a democratic government based on the results of the 1990
general election. 

Opposition parties, the largest led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi, won the 1990 election, but results were overturned by a military
government in power for three decades. 

At least eight shots were fired by high-powered rifles into the sky shortly
after the embassy was seized, the official Thai News Agency reported. The
Myanmar flag hanging in front of the embassy was soon taken down, and
replaced with a red banner decorated with a yellow peacock. 

Oct/02/1999    3:26