AP-Rebel Who Took Over Myanmar Emba

[heiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: AP-Rebel Who Took Over Myanmar Embassy Vows To Fight On

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Hi,

oh, I think I need to apologise to Mg Myanmar. But, what is going on in
Burma?
What is this Johnny for a person?

Regards
Heiko

> TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> Thursday, December 9 1:46 PM SGT
> 
> Rebel Who Took Over Myanmar Embassy Vows To Fight On
> 
> KA MAR PA LAW, Myanmar (AP)--Hiding at a jungle base with authorities
> from two countries hunting him, the leader of a small band of student
> rebels who seized Myanmar's embassy in Thailand two months ago said
> the ambassador was lucky to still be alive.
> 
> The man known as Johnny, whose capture of the embassy was the boldest
> move in years by Myanmar's outmaneuvered pro-democracy movement, told
> The Associated Press this week at a remote hideout in Myanmar, also
> known as Burma, that he will keep fighting as long as he lives.
> 
> Johnny, about 30 years old, said his group, who call themselves the
> Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors and are called terrorists by
> Myanmar's military regime, had been prepared to kill Ambassador Hla
> Maung - who by luck of timing had left the embassy just before the
> seizure.
> 
> The group was also prepared to kill four other Myanmar citizens if it
> had to, Johnny said.
> 
> "I have to say the ambassador is very lucky," said Johnny, handing out
> one of Hla Maung's stolen business cards. "I saw his car leave the
> embassy about five minutes before we entered, but it was too late to
> call off the operation."
> 
> In a sign of frustration dogging Myanmar's opposition after decades of
> harsh military rule, Johnny denounced Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
> harassed legal opposition and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for
> her nonviolent promotion of democracy.
> 
> "I don't like Suu Kyi because I don't think she really loves the
> country," Johnny remarked. "She doesn't have the courage to run the
> country."
> 
> He said that Suu Kyi's marriage to a British academic, the late
> Michael Aris, proved that she preferred foreigners to her own people -
> a line of reasoning pushed by the military government in its branding
> of Suu Kyi as a traitor.
> 
> "I'll be against her if she's in the government," Johnny said.
> 
> Suu Kyi and her party criticized the embassy takeover a few days after
> it happened, expressing sympathy for the aims but declaring that her
> movement wanted to "show that the human spirit can prevail over the
> might of arms and bring about the change that we want."
> 
> Apologizes To Thailand
> 
> Johnny and four other exiled students stormed the embassy Oct. 1,
> demanding a restoration of democracy in Myanmar and holding dozens of
> diplomats and foreigners hostage at gunpoint for 26 hours until the
> captors were given safe passage to the border.
> 
> The incident rocked Thailand's relations with Myanmar, particularly
> because Thai officials who negotiated the bloodless end to the siege
> called the hostage-takers freedom-fighters.
> 
> Myanmar retaliated by closing the border. Thailand then expelled about
> 10,000 illegal Myanmarese workers and has moved to send exiled student
> dissidents who have been based in Thailand for more than a decade to
> third countries.
> 
> Johnny and his comrades are on the run from Thai police, who have
> issued warrants for their arrest. The Myanmar army, whose control over
> the rebel-ridden border area is uneven, dearly wants to capture them.
> 
> They have surfaced at the border base of a small, mystical ethnic
> Karen guerrilla band known as God's Army, led by twin 12-year-old
> boys.
> 
> Johnny's one regret was that Thailand toughened conditions for Myanmar
> refugees after the takeover. He apologized to Thailand for having to
> carry out the action on its soil.
> 
> Johnny expressed enthusiasm for God's Army, which gave them shelter
> when more established rebel groups were apparently unwilling. Still,
> he promised that the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors would not fade
> away.
> 
> "We won't be here too long," he said. "There's still many more things
> to do. But can't say what they will be. It will be a fight to get rid
> of the Burmese government."
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