The Straits Times -Hostages? Yangon

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Subject: The Straits Times -Hostages? Yangon says some were play-acting 

The Straits Times
OCT 5 1999

Hostages? Yangon says some were play-acting

Myanmar accuses Western hostages of acting in cahoots with the anti-junta
hostage-takers

YANGON -- Myanmar yesterday accused Westerners who were taken hostage by
anti-junta gunmen in a raid on its embassy in Bangkok of conniving with
their captors beforehand.

In a statement, the ruling military also hinted that foreign diplomats in
Thailand may also have played a role.

"Independent observers of the embassy incident have also pointed out that
the whole drama was more or less a stage act where some foreigners who came
into the embassy to apply for visas have also been involved," a statement by
the junta said.

It cited reports of "senior foreign diplomats" meeting anti-Myanmar
government groups in Bangkok and at a detention centre near the border.

The Burmese-language Mirror daily issued similar accusations of
collaboration: "It is learned that the terrorists had connived beforehand
with some of the foreigners who had come for visas on that day."

But the newspaper gave no details of how the Westerners might have assisted
the gunmen.

It also said the armed group of five, who fled to the Thai-Myanmar border in
a helicopter after releasing their captives, had stolen cash and documents
from the embassy offices.

The kidnappers had demanded that the military junta in Yangon open talks
with the democratic opposition led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta has repeatedly accused Aung San Suu Kyi, who denied involvement in
the embassy-hostage incident and decried the use of violence, of having
foreign backers.

As the five gunmen climbed into an escape helicopter provided by the Thai
authorities on Saturday to take them to the border, freed Western hostages
waved red pro-democracy banners and shouted slogans.

Yesterday, the junta responded to comments by Thailand's Interior Minister
Sanan Kachonprasart, who called the hostage-takers democracy fighters rather
than terrorists.

"One wonders at any point during the entire siege of the embassy, if the
trigger-happy gunmen's ... activity resulted in death of not only the
embassy staff but families including children, can they still be regarded as
not terrorists, but students who are fighting for democracy," the statement
said.

"It is still of grave concern to the diplomatic community around the world
to realise that armed terrorism if carried out under the pretext of a
certain disguise is acceptable ... There will be no effective way of
preventing terrorist activities being repeated and spawned."

The junta has meanwhile beefed up security around foreign embassies in the
capital Yangon.

Officials said the Thai-Myanmar border remained closed yesterday. Despite
Thai media reports of increased Myanmar troop deployment, a Thai border
official said: "There is no report of any tension along the border." -- AFP