These are the kind of men of which

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: These are the kind of men of which heroes are made. And we salute you all.

"Exiled Myanmar dissidents Saturday deplored the violent tactics of
radical student gunmen..." And so it was said by many, but not by all.

Now that the helicopter has left, and the Thai minister has been
released, and hostages are free and safe, it is truly amazing and
unfortunate that one opposition group after another is heaping praise on
the Thai government, on Thai officials, on the Thai negotiating process,
and not a word of praise or recognition for the brave freedom fighters
who once again showed the Burmese junta that they are at fault. These
brave fighters threatened innocent hostages, and held off hundreds of
elite paramilitary soliders, and risked their lives not so others would
flow like rivers into a vacuum to cover up the essence of their deed,
but to appeal to the civilized world to free political prisoners, to
dialogue with the NLD and with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for national
reconciliation. Lke great and free nations, they used force as a means
of deterrence, arms to prevent warefare. Theirs was a great mission of
peace, not war. They did not blow up the embassy, they did not
unnecessarily take lives or use violence gratuitously. They artfully
negotiated their way out of a most dangerous and tense combat situation,
and they did it with in such a way that the entire civilised world of
hundreds of millions of people, kept spellbound in suspense and hope,
could see that they meant no real harm to the hostages unless the Thai
negotiators forced a violent end to the conflict. 

Full responsibility rather than mere praise rests on the Thai government
to respect their committment to the displaced Burmese population that
now fears a "whiplash" or hostility and rebuke, which is absolutely
unjutified by the heroic and brave act of 
defiance in the name of freedom and respect for human rights, and the
call for a democratic form of government in Burma. 

And they breathed new life into the thousands of political prisoners
suffering in hardship behind the dreaded prison walls of Burma.

EuroBurma, and Dawn Star particularly, strongly affirms the noble and
just cause of these freedom fighters, and though their methods may seem
unthinkable to a hypocritical, near-sighted and so-called civilised
world that encourages the junta and gives it international forums of
support and endorsement, no one truly dare utter with honestly that
these brave men were unjustified in their deed. No one but complacement
and 
smug diplomats and their kind so unlike these fighters and men of peace.

These selfless men, and not those who make great sounding public
statements of reserved astonishment, will go down in the history of the
freedom struggle in Burma as heroes
of the oppressed, victims of investment policies, unrestrained global
capitalism by corporations and their greedy shareholders, sychophant
civil servants and other diplomats of useless rhethoic that serves not
that cause of freedom, but rather the 
forces of reaction that constrain it as the struggle now breaches the
21st century. 


These were brave and fearless men. Let it be said by he who dares to
tell the truth that these are the kind of men of which heros are made.
These are the men who one day will defend a free and democratic Burma. 

We salute you all. 

Dawn Star
EuroBurmanet
> 
> Thailand-Myanmar-dissent,2ndlead
>    Myanmar dissidents say embassy hostage crisis a "wake up call"
>    ATTENTION - ADDS Thai minister quote of no crackdown ///
> 
>    BANGKOK, Oct 2 (AFP) - Exiled Myanmar dissidents Saturday deplored the
> violent tactics of radical student gunmen who stormed the Myanmar embassy
> here
> taking nearly 40 hostages, but said the action should be seen as a "wake up
> call" by ASEAN.
>    The captors called for democracy in Myanmar, demanding the junta start
> talks with Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League of Democracy (NLD)
> and the release all political prisoners.
>    The gunmen, calling themselves the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,"
> fled in a helicopter supplied by Thai authorities.
>    However, dissidents and democracy activists based in Bangkok said they
> rejected the use of violence in the struggle to overthrow decades-old
> military
> rule in Myanmar.
>    "The hostage crisis is very dangerous for the non-violent pro-democracy
> movement," said Debbie Stothard from the Alternative ASEAN Network on Asia.
>    Stothard said she feared a backlash against democracy activists and
> issued
> a tearful plea for Thai police to refrain from launching a crackdown on
> exiled
> dissident groups.
>    "Dissidents living in Bangkok are leaving their homes out of fear that
> the
> police will come and arrest them," she said.
>    But Thai Interior Minister Sanan Kachonprasart said law-abiding Myanmar
> dissidents had nothing to fear.
>    "As long as the students don't commit crimes in our country, then they
> are
> free to express their views," he said.
>    Human rights groups and Myanmar dissidents released a statement warning
> Myanmar's Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) partners that the
> hostage crisis should be considered a "wake up call."
>    "The event is a grim reminder that there are consequences for failing to
> achieve peaceful positive changes in Burma," said the statement, signed by
> nine organisations.
>    "The best way to prevent such unfortunate events from recurring in
> ASEAN's
> front yard is to engage in a peaceful, political process at an early stage,"
> it said.
>    The gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades stormed the embassy just
> before noon Friday taking diplomats, Thais and a number of foreigners
> hostage.
>    Many bursts of gunfire were heared from within the embassy during the
> 24-hour hostage crisis, but none of the hostages was seriously injured.
>    Most, if not all the hostages, are now believed to have been released.
>    The latest group of 23 was released at a makeshift helicopter landing pad
> a
> few kilometers (miles) from the embassy in exchange for Thai Deputy Foreign
> Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra and another official, an AFP reporter on the
> scene said.
>    The helicopter carrying the new hostages and five gunmen is believed to
> be
> have landed near the Thai-Myanmar border.
>    Police had earlier said 12 gunmen were behind the attack, but they now
> say
> only five men were involved.
>    Myanmar was admitted to ASEAN in 1997, despite criticism from western
> nations of the junta's poor human rigths record.
>    ASEAN maintains the best way to bring about change in Myanmar is through
> "constructive engagement."
>    Dissidents have been locked in a long-running and bitter struggle for
> democracy with the junta.
>    Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won an overwhelming victory in 1990
> elections ignored by the military.
>    The NLD has consistently rejected the use of violence to bring about
> democratic change.
>    The Yangon junta 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.
>    smo-gw/nj