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AP-Myanmar: Thais know who are real



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AP-Myanmar: Thais know who are real terrotists

Monday October 4 3:15 PM ET

Myanmar: Thais Sent Wrong Message

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Thai authorities sent the wrong message to terrorists
and criminals by freeing the militants who seized Myanmar's embassy in
Bangkok, the government of Myanmar said Monday.

The 26-hour embassy siege ended peacefully Saturday after Thai officials
agreed to fly the five student rebels to the border with Myanmar after they
released 38 hostages. No one was seriously hurt.

The students had sought to publicize the fight for democracy in Myanmar,
also called Burma, which is under military rule.

In a statement to foreign news agencies, the Myanmar government said it was
relieved by the end of the siege. It described the militants who staged it
as ``a group of life-threatening, heavily armed and trigger-happy men.''

The government expressed concern about the future safety of its diplomats
and diplomatic missions, saying the incident set ``a negative precedent.''

``Upon the pretext of the precedent, other radical or even non-radical
groups may get the wrong message that these kinds of terrorist and criminal
activities can be conveniently carried out under the banner of freedom,
democracy and human rights,'' it said.

The statement was implicitly critical of Thai policy and attitudes toward
exiles from Myanmar, calling camps inside Thailand housing refugees from the
Yangon regime ``breeding grounds for armed violence and sanctuaries for
radicals.''

Some if not all five of the embassy raiders came from a refugee camp run by
the Thai Interior Ministry.

In the press statement, as well as in another official one published in
Myanmar newspapers Monday, the government also accused some of the foreign
hostages with collaborating with the militants.

``Investigations revealed that some foreigners who were present at the visa
section of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok when the armed terrorists seized
the embassy, were there in guise of visa applicants, with the prior
arrangements with the terrorists,'' said the statement in the
state-controlled press. It did not specify which foreigners.

No independent evidence has emerged to support that assertion, although
several hostages afterward expressed sympathy for the student rebels and
their cause.