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The Natio(28/11/99)
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<font size=4><b>Aus embassy threatened<br>
</font></b><font face="arial" size=3>PRIME Minister Chuan Leekpai
yesterday ordered the Interior Ministry to beef up security measures
after the Australian embassy requested tighter protection for fear of
reprisals by exiled Burmese students whose requests for entry visas had
been turned down. <br>
The Australian embassy would certainly not issue entry visas to the
Burmese students until the agreement regarding the resettlement process
was finalised, said Chuan before leaving for Manila to join the Asean
summit. <br>
''They will accept only when they are ready,'' added the premier. <br>
Police Lt Gen Yothin Mattayomnant said the embassy had requested more
Thai security personnel to guard its sprawling compound in Bangkok.
<br>
All visitors to the embassy regardless of nationality are being
thoroughly inspected. <br>
Embassy officials were not available for comment on Saturday. <br>
''The embassy fears it might be a target of some disgruntled Burmese
dissidents,'' the police officer said. <br>
Media reports have indicated that the Australian government has been
turning down applications by Burmese activists seeking a new life in
Australia. The refusal has sparked rumours that the displeased students
would retaliate by storming the mission. <br>
According to Chuan, about 85 per cent of the Burmese students residing in
the Kingdom want to be resettled in a third country. <br>
Several countries have expressed their interest in granting these exiled
students asylum. They include the United States, Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and a number of European Union nations. <br>
Moreover, the Thai police are also providing extra security around the
Burmese Embassy to prevent history from repeating itself. <br>
Five democracy activists seized the Burmese Embassy here in October but
released all hostages unharmed after Thai authorities gave them safe
passage to the Thai-Burmese border. <br>
Several thousand former students from Burma have been allowed to stay in
Thailand since fleeing their military-dominated homeland. <br>
Most escaped following the bloody 1988 suppression of a pro-democracy
uprising. <br>
But after the Oct. 1-2 embassy seizure, the Thai government asked the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees to complete resettlement of the activists
within the next few years. <br>
A Thai court yesterday sentenced 19 exiled Burmese students to six-month
suspended jail terms for failing to comply with a Thai crackdown on
asylum seekers, immigration officials said. <br>
They did not meet a Nov 21 deadline for all exiled students to report to
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) before being
confined to a holding camp on the Thai-Burma border. <br>
A municipal court found them guilty of illegal entry and sentenced them
to a six-month suspended jail term along with a Bt9,000 fine, court and
immigration officials said. <br>
''All of them were charged with illegal entry,'' said Colonel Vissanu
Muangpraesri from the immigration police. <br>
The Thai National Security Council set strict new conditions for the
estimated 2,000 exiled Burmese students in Thailand, after five gunmen
claiming to be pro-democracy student activists took 38 people hostage at
Burma's embassy here on Oct 1. <br>
Thailand has also urged the UNHCR to speed up the repatriation of all
exiled Myanmar students to third countries. <br>
. <br>
The Nation, Associated Press<br>
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