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AFP-Myanmar embassy gunmen not in T



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AFP-Myanmar embassy gunmen not in Thailand: rebel sources

Myanmar embassy gunmen not in Thailand: rebel sources
BANGKOK, Oct 22 (AFP) - The five pro-democracy gunmen who stormed Yangon's
Bangkok embassy earlier this month are not in Thailand but on the run inside
Myanmar, informed sources said.
A senior member of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW), who claimed
responsibility for the 25-hour embassy hostage drama, told AFP the group
were moving between villages on the Myanmar side of the border.

He said the group felt it had achieved its objectives in storming the
embassy.

"Our flying the fighting peacock flag (of the democracy movement) for 24
hours from the embassy was a tremendous victory for our movement," the
source told AFP in an interview on the border.

"It was a historic event," he said, adding the group now felt more confident
than ever.

The gunmen stormed the embassy on October 1, holding 38 people hostage for
more than 24 hours and initially demanding the ruling military in Myanmar
open talks with the democratic opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi.

On October 2, Thai negotiators bowed to the gunmen's demands for an escape
helicopter to the jungled Thai-Myanmar border.

The junta in Yangon, which closed the border with Thailand after the
incident, has been critical of Thailand's handling of the crisis, and has
demanded it track down and arrest the gunmen.

Thailand has issued arrest warrants for two of the gunmen it says can be
identified, but has said it remains unclear if they are still in Thailand.

Another VBSW member told AFP one of the main goals of the embassy hostage
drama, codenamed "G3," was to grab international attention and send "a wake
up message" to pro-democracy activists and fellow students inside Myanmar.

He said that operation "G3" was also designed to send a message to the
junta, showing them just how much student activists were capable of.

He said that although the VBSW had close ties with a number of rebel groups
active on the Thai-Myanmar border, including the Karen National Union and
the splinter Karen group "God's Army", it was an independent movement.

He said that the VBSW was formed shortly before the planned 9/9/99 uprising,
or "Four Nines Movement," last month in which exiled dissidents encouraged
those inside Myanmar to replicate a mass uprising on August 8, 1988, or
8/8/88.

The VBSW member also denied junta claims that the group had received help
from foreign elements in executing the hostage drama.

"If they had reveived that kind of assistance, the hostage-taking would have
been better executed and more systematic."

He also denied claims the hostage-takers stole money from embassy, but said
a number of important documents had been taken.