NEWS - Embassy raiders remain elusi

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Subject: NEWS - Embassy raiders remain elusive

THE NATION - October 6, 1999

Embassy raiders remain elusive

THREE days after the dramatic 25-hour hostage crisis at the Burmese
Embassy,
Thai authorities are still at a loss in their efforts to establish the
identities of the five armed Burmese militants who were given safe
passage
last Saturday in exchange for the release of 89 Burmese diplomats and
foreigners.

They were also trying to establish the assailants' connection with an
unidentified armed group which had cheerfully greeted them when a Thai
helicopter dropped them some 500 metres inside Burma at an area known as
Kamaplaw. Kamaplaw is over the border from Thailand's Suan Phung
district in
western Ratchaburi province.

According to a well-informed source who is familiar with western border
activities, two small armed groups, the God Army and the Karen National
Union Youth (KNU-Youth), are active in the Kamaplaw area. Although
another
small group known as the Karen Solidarity Organisation (KSO), led by
Mahn
Robert Ba Zan, who is the son of the late Karen leader Mahn Ba Zan, has
had
a presence in the jungle neighbourhood, the source ruled out KSO
involvement
in the embassy attack.

Mahn Robert Ba Zan left the Karen National Union, the armed guerrilla
movement which has been fighting for greater autonomy from Rangoon since
Burma's independence from Britain in 1948, after a high-level clash over
the
policy of negotiations with the Burmese junta. The KSO is not known to
be
active in guerrilla operations.

The source said he had heard that the hostage-takers, who called
themselves
the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, had contacted the KSO but that
the
KSO was unable to help because it did not have any armed forces.

The source added that it was not yet known whether either of the two
other
groups, the KNU-Youth and the God Army, had given the hostage-takers a
warm
welcome when they were set free in the Kamaplaw area.

The KNU-Youth is a Buddhist-dominated organisation. The God Army was
formed
by a group of disgruntled Karen villagers seeking revenge for the
Burmese
Army's major attack and capture of the KNU's 4th Brigade headquarters in
early 1997. The Burmese military offensive displaced the whole Karen
population living in the rugged border terrain opposite Kanchanaburi
province.

Many of the refugees who fled to Thailand were later repatriated and
resettled in another border area opposite Ratchaburi province, far south
of
their traditional homes, which were in the way of major economic
development
projects, including the multi-billion dollar Yadana gas pipeline and the
highway between western Thailand and the Burmese port of Tavoy.

Following the fall of the KNU's 4th Brigade headquarters and the failure
of
the KNU forces to protect the civilian population, the villagers decided
to
arm themselves to protect their own interests and for safety from
Burmese
troops, said the source. The Christian-dominated God Army is thought to
have
150 to 200 armed men. ''They are very simple villagers who decided to
take
up arms and fight the Burmese,'' said the source.

Thai authorities are trying to establish contact with the groups to find
out
if the five Burmese assailants are living with either of them. Thai
police
plan to issue arrest warrants for the hostage-takers.

Yesterday the authorities were able to establish the identities of only
two
Burmese hostage-takers, Gyaw Ni or San Gyaw Gyaw Oo and Prida or Myint
Thein. The three other collaborators were believed to be young ethnic
Karen
from the border area.

Chaiyapreuk Sawaengcharoen, a senior official of the Correction
Department
and a former chief of the Maneeloy holding centre for Burmese
asylum-seekers
in Ratchaburi, who flew with the hostage-takers to the border,
recognised
both Gyaw Ni and Prida, both of whom had at one time lived in Maneeloy
camp.

In a statement dated Aug 29, 1999 announcing the establishment of the
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, Gyaw Ni and Myint Thein are
identified as
among the 18 founding members. The statement, which gave the group's
intention as joining forces to establish democracy in Burma, also
included
the names of three members living outside both Thailand and Burma, Ye
Thu
Naing (Australia), Tin Khaik (Japan), and Than Htay (Canada).

The name San Naing is also mentioned in the list of committee members.
It is
not yet known if it is the same San Naing, or Ye Thi Ha, who along with
fellow student Ye Yint hijacked a Burmese domestic flight to Thailand in
October 1989.