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The BurmaNet News: January 26, 2000
- Subject: The BurmaNet News: January 26, 2000
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 06:04:00
=============== The BurmaNet News ===============
January 26, 2000
Issue # 1447
=========================================
Noted in passing:
1. "They were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and
kneel down," said the official." A Thai female witness at the Ratchburi
hospital.(See BANKGOK POST: WITNESSES SAY POLICE SHOT THEM ONE BY ONE)
2. "Excellent! Very good!" he said." Thai Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart on hearing of the outcome of the siege. (See BANKGOK
POST: 'EXCELLENT! VERY GOOD!' CLAPS SANAN)
3. Photos of the shrouded bodies displayed by Thai authorities show
most apparently bleeding from the back of their heads. (See
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/photo.html)
=========
Headlines
=========
Inside Burma--
ABFSU: IR ABOUT THE CURRENT EDUCATION SITUATION IN BURMA (1999-2000)
RADIO MYANMAR: MILITARY OFFICIAL REPORTS LAND RECLAMATION SUCCESSFUL
THE GUARDIAN (LONDON): THE RINGMASTERS OF TERROR WHO TAME A SUFFERING
NATION OF 48M
XINHUA: MYANMAR LEADER ON POWER TRANSFER
===
International--
AP: REBELS KILLED IN COLD BLOOD, WITNESSES SAY; HOSPITAL PATIENTS DIE
BANGKOK POST: SHELLING SET OFF RAID BY RADICALS
SCMP: GUERILLAS REFUSE TO PASS INTO HISTORY
SCMP: BAND CORNERED ON BORDER OF DESPAIR
BANKGOK POST: PM CHUAN DEFENDS RETALIATION
BANKGOK POST: PUBLIC IN SUPPORT OF COMMANDO OPERATION
AFP: TWO DEAD REBELS WERE PART OF OCTOBER SIEGE AT MYANMAR EMBASSY:
BANGKOK
BANKGOK POST: WITNESSES SAY POLICE SHOT THEM ONE BY ONE
BANKGOK POST: REPATRIATION OF ALIENS TO INTENSIFY
BANKGOK POST: MONGKOL REVOKES DEAL NOT TO SHELL KAREN
BANKGOK POST: SCHOOLS TO STAY SHUT UNTIL SAFETY ENSURED
BANKGOK POST: INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES FACING OVERHAUL AFTER SECURITY LAPSE
BANKGOK POST: OPERATION LEAVES BEHIND TESTIMONY OF KILLING ZONE
BANKGOK POST: SOME INJURED PARATROOPERS ALSO AT OCT SIEGE OF EMBASSY
BANKGOK POST: GUNFIRE SHATTERS SHROUD OF SECRECY
BANKGOK POST: ROYAL ADVISER VISITS WOUNDED HEROES
BANKGOK POST: 'EXCELLENT! VERY GOOD!' CLAPS SANAN
BANKGOK POST: SWIFT END TO SIEGE DRAWS PRAISE FROM MILITARY JUNTA IN
RANGOON
BANKGOK POST: NATIONAL PRIDE AND MILITARY HONOUR SEALED THE FATE OF
GUERRILLAS
THE NORTHERN ECHO (UK): DEMOCRACY PRISONER WAS DENIED CARDS AT CHRISTMAS
OTTAWA CITIZEN: CANADIAN COMPANY INVESTS IN MYANMAR OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
THE NATION: NO WAGGING TONGUES AT RATCHABURI
THE NATION: WHAT THEY SAID
THE NATION: CALL TO RELOCATE MANEELOY HOLDING CENTRE
THE NATION: RATCHABURI PEOPLE IRATE
THE NATION: GOVT DEFENDS ACTION AS UNAVOIDABLE
THE NATION: BURMA JUNTA DRAWS FLAK
THE NATION: REBELS 'MAY HAVE SURRENDERED'
THE NATION: INEPT SECURITY OFFICIALS TO BLAME
THE NATION: FOUR PATIENTS SUCCUMB
THE NATION: ACADEMICS BACK GOVT OVER USE OF FORCE
THE NATION: ANTI-TERRORISM CENTRE TO OPEN
REUTERS/THE NATION: OCT SIEGE LED TO REBELS' DOOM
THE NATION : DECISIVE ACTION HELPS THAI-BURMA GOVT TIES
THE NATION: PSYCHIATRIC HELP FOR PATIENTS, STAFF
THE NATION: MAJORITY BACK RAID DECISION
THE NATION: CHRONOLOGY OF THE ASSAULT
===
Editorial--
THE NATION: BORDER PROBLEMS LIKELY TO CONTINUE
BANKGOK POST: OUR FORCES DID WELL WHAT THEY HAD TO DO
BANGKOK POST: LETTER-- MINORITIES ARE UNDER PRESSURE
CSB: THE TRUTH-- GOD ARMY AND THE THAI GENERAL MONGKHOL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ABFSU: IR ABOUT THE CURRENT EDUCATION SITUATION IN BURMA (1999-2000)
Subject: Sharing information
Info.1/2000
15 January,2000
"Primary Level Education"
Social subjects are now being introduced from a basis primary level. The
military junta government has instituted a new means to evaluate class
promotion. In order to obtain the marks for class promotion, students
must help clean the school campus, help the parent in home, participate
in school games, and join as a member of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association which was instituted by junta government.
Every year in February a final examination is held for all students. The
junta's new policy makes it possible for a student to sit for a re-exam
if he failed in one subject or more. Therefore, every student is always
able to pass the year's final exam.
" Middle Level Education"
>From the fifth to eighth standard is the middle education level. As in
the primary level the new standards for final examinations ensure that
everyone will pass. The new edition of the Burmese History Textbook has
eradicated the role of General Aung San, who has been demarcated as the
sculpture of Independence by the people, and also omitted the historical
records of student activities.
"High Level Education"
In the ninth standard the system to evaluate class promotion is the same
as the systems of primary and middle standards. The textbooks in 9th
standard have also eradicated the role of Bogyoke Aung San - there isn't
a word about Aung San in the entire textbook. Regarding early 20th
century Burmese history, the new history tests book ends with the King
of Thibaw who was the last ruler of the Burma monarchy era. We have
found the extraordinary fact to be that most of the state students
believe they can easily pass the exam every year without studying their
test books. Thus, the students have lost the persistent effort to excel
in their student life.
Before 1999 the tenth standard final examinations was one set exam paper
of government standard for the whole country. However, now the exam
papers have changed and are written by each individual state or
division. Also, now the exams are matriculate since 1999. According to
sources in the education field, most of the professors and teachers
can't guess how to change and make the tenth standard align with the
junta desire yet. In 1999, one-third of the students passed 10th
standard and was interested to enter Institutes, Universities and
Colleges but they have found that they have to wait for years to attend.
Now, the junta government has changed the Institute of Technology into
the Technological University. For students who pass with high grades, if
they are interested in the subject of engineering they must first join
the Government Technical Institute. Second, if they pass again with
marks of distinction, they try to join the Government Technological
Collage and then, as a final stage they can join the Technological
University (Rangoon and Mandalay). Thus, he can take a Bachelor of
Engineering.
A student who has passed the matriculate exam with roughly over 350
marks, if he wants to join the Institutes of Medicine (which include
Dental, Veterinary and Pharmacy), the Institute of Agriculture,
Institute of Forestry, Institute of Economics he must sit for the
entrance exam. The entrance exam has the same content as the tenth
standard subjects, including external knowledge. If he passes the
entrance he can join the Institute. For the students who fail the
entrance they can only choose to attend the Art and Science University.
"Condition of the University, College and Diploma Training"
Until 1995, students who passed the 10th standard were able to attend
University, College and Degree College. Over 400,000 students who have
passed the tenth standard level from 1996 to 1999 have been waiting to
attend University, College and Degree College. Student who passed the
10th standard in 1996-97 paid for the university entrance form to the
Department of Education, yet still don't know the results.
In December, the University of Distance Education was re-opened for all
years of university except first year. One term is three and a half
months and costs over 6,500 Kyats, not including the cost of textbooks
and papers. If students do not pay by 8 January 2000, students are
forced to change majors and must sit out one year before re-enrollment.
The Workers College will never reopen, we heard.
"Diploma Trainings"
In the middle of 1997, the junta opened "Diploma Training", which
includes 6 programs of study: Engineering (2 years at 35000 Kyats for
one year), Economics, Accounting (3 months and 6 months at 4500 Kyats
per year), English Language (4 months at 4500 Kyats), Computer (2 years
at 4500 Kyats per subject), and Geology (8 months at about 6000. It is
required to sit for an entrance exam to join these trainings that has
shares with the Government Executive of Co-operation (GEC) who intend to
get the money for teachers. At end of these trainings students cannot
apply their knowledge for sites and working field in Burma. The junta's
intent is to show to international bodies that the Universities and
Colleges are still open in Burma, and to stray wealthy students who are
willing to pay at least 5000 Kyats for one nonsense training.
They want to ensure the universities are closed long term. Even the
ministry of Science and Technology minister U Thaung stated in an
unofficial meeting last summer that he does not consider the training
attendee for work
"Institutes and Universities now opening in Burma"
1.) Institute of Forestry (Yay Sin, Pyinmanar, Mandalay Division)
2.) Institute of Agriculture (Yay Sin, Pyinmanar, Mandalay Division)
3.) Institute of Computer (Rangoon and Mandalay)
4.) Institute of Medicine No (1) and No (2) (Rangoon and Mandalay)
5.) Institute of Veterinary Medicine (Yay Sin, Pyinmanar, Mandalay
Division)
6.) Institute of Nursing (Rangoon)
7.) Institute of Pharmacy (Rangoon)
8.) Science and Art University (Honors class for first, second and third
years in Rangoon)
We heard that the re-opening of the rest of the Universities and
Colleges is coming in May, but sources of education in Burma are not
sure yet. The building for the new University on the road of
Khayan-ThoneGya in Thanlyin Town, which was started in 1997, has been
completed. This new university will join Hlaing College and Kyimyindine
College students. Botataung College can't open because the Workers
College is closed forever.
Foreign Affairs' Committee.
All Burma Federation of Student Unions.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
RADIO MYANMAR: MILITARY OFFICIAL REPORTS LAND RECLAMATION SUCCESSFUL
Rangoon, in Burmese 1330 gmt 18 Jan 00
Excerpts from report by Burmese radio on 18th January
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development
Council [SPDC], and his entourage arrived in Pagan-Nyaung-u by air at
0830 on 17th January. Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt and his party then proceeded
to Pakokku... After attending Pakokku U Ohn Pe Literary Prize award
ceremony and inspecting Kokkohla Water Pumping Project, Lt-Gen Khin
Nyunt inspected land reclamation and agriculture development work being
carried out by Asia World Company Ltd in Salin Township, Magwe Division.
U Maung Gyi, a member of the Board of Directors of Asia World Company,
and Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, chairman of Magwe Division Peace and Development
Council, gave briefings at the site office and Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt gave
guidance...
After visiting Mon Chaung Multipurpose Reservoir Project in Sidoktaya,
Minbu District, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt inspected fallow and virgin land
reclamation and agriculture development work of Dagon International
Limited in Yepokgyi region, Pwintbyu Township, Minbu District. Dr Daw
Moe Mya Mya, director of Dagon International Ltd, gave a briefing on the
project implementation...
Speaking at the briefing, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt explained that it has been a
year since national entrepreneurs have been encouraged and permitted to
engage in reclamation of fallow and virgin land using farm machinery to
develop agriculture on a large scale in Magwe Division. He therefore
urged the departmental and regional authorities concerned to ensure
systematic land utilization and production and trading of the produce.
Dagon International Ltd presented two television sets for use in Minbu
Basic Education High School to Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, chairman of Magwe
Division Peace and Development Council. Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt and party then
inspected sample crops produced by Dagon International Ltd.
Next, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt and party inspected the fallow and virgin land
reclamation work and agriculture development being carried out in Yosapo
region in Pywintbyu, Minbu District, by Myanmar Billion Group Ltd. U
Teza, deputy chairman of Myanmar Billion Group, gave a briefing on work
situation and road construction at the site office. Magwe Division Peace
and Development Council Chairman Brig-Gen Thein Zaw and Deputy
Agriculture and Irrigation Minister U Ohn Myint reported on development
of reclaimed fallow and virgin land for agriculture by national
entrepreneurs in Magwe Division, crops cultivation, and water for crops
cultivation...
Speaking at the meeting, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt said after he inspected
agricultural undertaking by the national entrepreneurs, he could say
that their undertakings have been successful and that it was encouraging
to witness the success of the national entrepreneurs in such a short
time. He said the national entrepreneurs took to the challenge with
determination to develop hundreds and thousands of acres of land with
assistance from the government in moving forward towards mechanized
farming. He said they have gained invaluable experience which could not
be determined in monetary terms and that they have good future prospect
with the new methods and technology they have obtained. He noted
thousands of local people are now gaining employment and are enjoying
the benefit in terms of better standard of living. He said the
infrastructure and trade development stemming from agriculture
development is contributing towards regional development and welfare of
the local people. He therefore urged the local and departmental
authorities to give assistance to facilitate the undertakings of the
national agro-business entrepreneurs, who are bringing benefits to the
local people...
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE GUARDIAN (LONDON): THE RINGMASTERS OF TERROR WHO TAME A SUFFERING
NATION OF 48M
January 25, 2000
John Aglionby
Repression, brutality and terror are watchwords of the Burmese military
junta, in which two dozen generals control the minds, if not the hearts,
of 48m people.
Since coming to power in 1962, 16 years after the country won its
independence from Britain, the generals have sealed the nation off from
the rest of the world. Only North Korea matches Burma in the way it
cocoons its people from outside influences.
They have done it through force. Thousands of people have been
slaughtered, tens of thousands more subjected to years of hard labour
and democratic movements have been all but eliminated.
In 1988, the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising and two years later
ignored the results of the general election that gave 82% of the vote to
the National League for Democracy led by the Oxford-educated Aung San
Suu Kyi.
She was put under house arrest but continued to campaign from her gilded
cage. The following year, in 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
but democracy remains an elusive dream. Pro-democracy campaigners are
still regularly imprisoned on the flimsiest of pretexts and free
elections are unlikely to be held for decades.
The only changes have been cosmetic. In 1997, the generals decided their
government's name, the state law and order restoration council - Slorc -
sounded too harsh, so they renamed it the state peace and development
council.
Other alterations include formally renaming the country Myanmar. Rangoon
has become Yangon.
Few countries choose to trade with Burma and tough sanctions remain in
force against it. But despite the lack of funds, the generals spend more
than a third of the national budget on the military while more than 25%
of the population is fighting for survival below the poverty line.
Burma's most lucrative export is heroin. Last week the generals took
foreign journalists to a site where acres of opium poppies were being
destroyed and 50,000 people resettled.
But, as with the name changes, few people believe it will result in any
substantial improvements.
The country's intolerance of interference in its affairs is reflected by
the seven years' hard labour imposed on a British protester, Rachel
Goldwyn, 28, for singing a pro-democracy song in the street.
She was freed after serv ing two months. On her return to Britain she
described how she had been subjected to pyschological abuse. A fellow
human rights protester, Ko Aung, had been kept in a 20ft- deep pit for
six days with a rotting human corpse.
Another Briton, James Mawdsley, 26, is serving a 17-year sentence in
Kengtung prison for distributing anti-government literature.
Mr Mawdsley had been arrested on two previous occasions in Burma but was
released after promising never to return.
He has said he was tortured during his second arrest, when he was
released after 99 days in solitary confinement. He was inspired by Aung
San Suu Kyi to work non-violently for democracy in Burma. After he was
sentenced in September, he decided not to appeal.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
XINHUA: MYANMAR LEADER ON POWER TRANSFER
January 25, 2000, Tuesday
YANGON, January 25
Myanmar military leader Senior- General Than Shwe Monday stressed the
need to avoid head-on confrontation with any organization in the
transfer of state power some day.
"The government, being the Tatmataw (military) government, has
entertained the conviction which is concerned with and can be accepted
by the entire people so as not to cause head-on confrontation with any
organization or any party with the aim of transferring the duties of
state into the hands of national people some day," Than Shwe, chairman
of the ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council, said when
addressing trainees here of the University for Development of National
Races.
Than Shwe, who is also the country's prime minister, admitted that
Myanmar lagged behind in development for various reasons, saying the
government is striving to achieve development of the state and enable
the nation to keep abreast of the international community.
He noted that the government has managed to build national solidarity
again, emphasizing that the union spirit is the spirit of striving for
prosperity of the union.
The Myanmar military government took over the power of state on
September 18, 1988, when the country was at the height of a political
and economic crisis.
Later on May 27, 1990, the military government sponsored a multi-party
general election with a declaration to transfer back the state power to
an elected government.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AP: REBELS KILLED IN COLD BLOOD, WITNESSES SAY;HOSPITAL PATIENTS DIE
January 26, 2000
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Commandos who stormed a hospital in a
hostage rescue mission killed some of the 10 captors in cold blood
after they surrendered, witnesses told Thai media, but outrage
seemed unlikely Wednesday amid news that several patients had died
during the siege.
Thai police stepped up security at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok
and along the border to prevent revenge attacks. The insurgents
were rebels from Myanmar seeking refuge for themselves and their
followers from a sustained attack by the country's military
government.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, who said the captors had crossed a
line by seizing a hospital, chaired a meeting to review the crisis.
The outcome was not immediately disclosed, but a press briefing was
planned.
Thai leaders and the public appeared satisfied that justice was
done when commandos Tuesday assaulted the Ratchaburi provincial
hospital, 95 kilometers (60 miles) west of Bangkok, and killed the
insurgents, who had trapped hundreds of patients and staff. The
hostages were all freed unharmed.
Their captors were identified as members of God's Army and the
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, fringe rebel groups. Other
dissidents from Myanmar based in Thailand disavowed their tactics,
fearing a wider backlash.
The hospital was open for business Wednesday, but bomb crews
searched for explosives in the outpatient department _ where most
of the hostages were held. Out-patient services were moved to
another building. Workers were still cleaning up blood and broken
glass.
Public reaction was summed by Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart in a statement bannered across the Bangkok Post's
front page: ``They all deserved it since they've brought much
trauma and suffering to the Thai people.''
The Post cited hostages who said some of their captors were
summarily executed. One hostage, identified as a senior woman
hospital official, said: ``They were shot in the head after they
had been told to undress and kneel down.''
Authorities displayed the bodies of the captors, wrapped in
white sheets, to the press Tuesday before burying them without
ceremony.
[see http://www.nationmultimedia.com/photo.html for photo]
Top police officials, asked Tuesday whether they had been shot
after surrendering, said they died fighting. There was no immediate
reaction to the reports of witnesses saying otherwise.
The Khao Sod newspaper published photos of five gunmen taken
before they were shrouded. The bloody corpses were stripped to
their underwear. Government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said an
investigation would be made into how the photos were obtained.
Hospital officials and relatives were cited by The Nation
newspaper as saying four patients, one of them 78 years old, died
during the siege from natural causes. It was unclear how much the
crisis contributed to their deaths.
A pregnant woman who had come for a scheduled Caesarean could
not have the operation, The Nation said.
After 15 hours under the care of six nurses in an outlying
building not controlled by the raiders, she went into labor and was
sneaked out an unwatched back entrance to another hospital. She
gave birth to a 4.05 kilogram (8 pound, 14 ounces) girl.
Three of the hostage-takers had taken part in the seizure last
October of Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok by the Vigorous Burmese
Student Warriors, the Post said. They freed some 40 hostages in
exchange for a helicopter to the border, where they took refuge
with God's Army.
The dead students were identified as Johnny and Preeda, the two
best-known members of the group, and Ye Yint, who served a
seven-year prison sentence in Thailand for hijacking a Myanmar
airliner in 1989.
Dissident sources told the Post, however, that neither Johnny
nor Ye Yint had taken part in the hospital takeover.
God's Army is led by 12-year-old twin boys believed by their
estimated 200 followers from the Karen minority to have magical
powers bringing victory. Like many Karen, they are fundamentalist
Christians in a predominantly Buddhist country.
The boys, Johnny and Luther Htoo, did not take part in the
attack and are believed to be somewhere on the Myanmar side of the
border.
The embassy siege angered Myanmar's government, which closed the
border for two months and accused Thailand of coddling terrorists.
Ties have improved since, and the military regime praised Thailand
for taking strong action this time.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: SHELLING SET OFF RAID BY RADICALS
January 25, 2000
Post Reporters
Heavy casualties inflicted on Karen fighters and civilians by army
gunners late last week led to the hospital raid, security sources said
yesterday.
The shelling was also linked to the Dec 19 deaths of four soldiers of
the Surasi Task Force who set off mines planted by the Karen, an
allegation the army denies.
"The bombardment might have killed and injured many in the area," said
one source. "We don't have an exact figure but the Karen estimate of 200
dead might be exaggerated."
Gen Surayud Chulanont, the army chief, denied the gunners had targeted
refugees along the border area. Lt-Gen Thaweep Suwanasingh, the first
army commander, said armed intruders had given the army no choice.
"We fired warning shots to prevent them crossing," he said. "The rounds
fell in our territory and were not directed at innocent people."
Maj-Gen Sanchai Ratchatawan, the commander of the 9th infantry division,
said he had given the order to fire.
Thai gunners were not helping Burmese forces suppress Karen rebels on
the border, said Maj-Gen Sanchai, also commander of the Surasi Task
Force.
A Karen rebel at the hospital, who identified himself only as Nui, said
the raid was an inevitable consequence of the indiscriminate shelling of
God's Army.
The Karen and the Thai military were not adversaries, he said, and the
shelling had taken a heavy toll on refugees who were already starving.
They said God's Army had decided to mine the track used by the task
force soldiers only after Thai forces let junta forces use it to
outflank the rebels.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
SCMP: GUERILLAS REFUSE TO PASS INTO HISTORY
South China Morning Post
Tuesday,
January 25, 2000
THAI SIEGE
WILLIAM BARNES
Around the time of independence, it was commonly held among ethnic
Burmese leaders that the Karen National Union was a colonial invention
that would fade away after the British left, argued author Martin Smith.
That 53 years after independence a Karen rebel faction has found it
necessary to be so bold as to seize a Thai hospital shows how wrong that
view was. It has turned out to be one of the world's longest-running
guerilla wars.
It was an anomaly of the independence constitution hammered out
hurriedly with the nationalists before the British left that the Karen -
though sturdy war-time allies of the British - were not presented with
their own even theoretically autonomous state.
This proved to be a bad, even disastrous, omen. Bitter suspicions
between the Karen and the Burmese who had been on opposite sides during
the Japanese war erupted into open warfare soon after independence.
Karen militia and deserters from the Burmese Army raced through the
country and reached the outskirts of Rangoon before they were stopped,
and eventually rebuffed.
The terrible falling out between the powerful Karen and the ethnic
Burmese nationalists did more than anything to set the pattern of
insurrection and distrust that pervades the country to this day.
The modern Burmese Army might have been founded by opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi's father but its esprit de corps, its self-belief and
its sense of mission were forged in those early post-war battles against
ethnic minorities - principally the Karen.
This history of betrayal and revenge continually breathes life into the
still bitter fighting that usually erupts every dry season as Rangoon
tries to extinguish the remaining pockets of active Karen resistance.
No one should imagine that the Karen are angels: far from it they are
tough, ruthless fighters.
But on balance the Karen's recent history would appear to show them more
sinned against than as sinners.
It will merely be another tragedy if this latest action causes the media
- in Thailand at least - to paint even the mainstream Karen rebels as
renegades and misfits.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
SCMP: BAND CORNERED ON BORDER OF DESPAIR
Tuesday, January 25, 2000
THAI SIEGE
South China Morning Post
WILLIAM BARNES
The rebels' desperate - probably foolish - actions appear to have been
prompted by unusually Machiavellian and opaque manoeuvring by both Thai
and Burmese soldiers along their shared border.
The little Karen band who describe themselves as God's Army had managed
against all the odds to hold on to their modest enclave in the face of
fierce attacks by the Burmese army that captured most of the surrounding
area three years ago.
But unfortunately they have had their backs to a Thai border patrolled
by the relatively unfriendly Thai 9th Infantry Division.
For reasons that sometimes escape even veteran border watchers, this
Thai army division has been notably rough in its handling of any Burmese
they bump into.
"Something ugly has been going down at the border. There has been some
dirty business going on," one informed observer said.
Whenever reports come from the border of men separated from their
vulnerable families or refugees rebuffed back into a war zone, it is
usually in an area where the 9th division is operating.
The brutal and efficient, but under-motivated, Burmese army appears at
least partly to be driven by a desire to punish the God's Army for
giving refuge to five former students who humiliated the ruling generals
by seizing the country's Bangkok embassy last year.
Yet over the past few days the God's Army has not only been trying to
hold off the Burmese - they also appear to have been forced to defend
themselves from the Thai army.
The Thai military has shelled the area occupied by perhaps 3,000 Karen
in the God's Army area, officially as a warning to both sides not to let
the fighting spill over the border.
The Thai armed forces in this area appear unusually close to their
Burmese counterparts across the border - probably partly because of
long-standing business relations between the two armies in the area.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
NEW YORK TIMES: THAIS SAY THEY RESCUED HOSTAGES AFTER STANDOFF
By SETH MYDANS
RATCHABURI, Thailand, Tuesday, Jan. 25
BODY:
Thai security forces stormed a hospital here early today, ending a
22-hour standoff in which a handful of guerrillas from neighboring
Myanmar, whose group is led by 12-year-old twin boys, took about 800
patients and staff members hostage.
A regional military commander said his forces had freed all the hostages
in this border town and killed 10 rebels. Their bodies, wrapped in
bloodied sheets, were put on display at the hospital. Two police
officers were wounded. It was not immediately known whether the twins
had been with the hostage-takers.
"All the hostages are safe," said the commander, Lt. Gen. Thaweep
Suwannasingha. Earlier, he said about 450 hostages remained in the
hospital after hundreds fled during the night.
On Monday morning, the black-masked gunmen, from a splinter group of
ethnic Karen rebels that calls itself God's Army, burst into the
hospital compound, 75 miles west of Bangkok, riding a hijacked blue
public bus and firing automatic rifles into the air.
The group's chain-smoking twin leaders, Johnny and Luther Htoo, are
fundamentalist Christians who claim to have mystical powers that make
them immune to bullets and land mines.
The gunmen said they did not intend to hurt anyone, but the strangeness
of the group and its leaders added an element of unpredictability to the
drama. "I have never cried," Luther told The Associated Press in an
interview last month. "Why would a man cry?"
Dr. Kuwat Suntrajarn, an official at the Ministry of Public Health, said
200 staff members and 600 patients were inside the 750-bed hospital when
the siege began about 7 a.m. Monday.
No injuries were reported in the rebel takeover, and the hospital staff
was apparently able to continue treating some patients. But perhaps 40
people were released on Monday -- some on stretchers, one on a
post-operative gurney, one in labor -- suggesting that their care in the
hospital was not adequate.
About 80 or more managed to flee, despite reports that the rebels had
attached a bomb to the main gate and placed mines around the perimeter.
One of the escapees said the hostages were unfed and hungry.
Thai officials had said the gunmen, wearing military fatigues, demanded
that Thailand stop shelling their hilltop base inside Myanmar, that it
provide medical care to wounded rebels, and that it give sanctuary to
their "army," which has no more than 200 fighters.
Piroon Kongkachai, a nurse who spent the night with 31 patients in the
neurosurgery ward, said today that she and her colleagues changed out of
their uniforms for fear of being seized by the rebels to provide the
medical care they were seeking inside Myanmar.
They spent the night trying to comfort the patients in the intensive
care unit, some of them on respirators. Three hours before security
forces stormed the hospital, she said, one of the Thai soldiers, dressed
like a patient, entered her ward and told her to turn off the lights,
lock the door and lie on the floor.
"Everybody just lay there silently watching the attack on television
with the sound turned off," she said. "Nobody screamed. We were all
ready for what happened."
God's Army is one of dozens of ethnic insurgent bands that have been
fighting the central government in Myanmar, the former Burma, for half a
century. In recent years most of the main fighting groups have reached
cease-fire or peace agreements with the military government, but the
Karen have continued to fight.
The story of the Htoo twins is one of the more bizarre elements in one
of the world's longest-running insurgencies -- a separatist war by
Myanmar's minority groups that has continued in the jungles since the
nation became independent from Britain in 1948.
According to legend, the boys rallied their village in 1997 to avenge a
government offensive in which -- as in many similar reported incidents
-- the soldiers raped women, killed men in front of their families and
set fire to thatched homes.
It was at that time that God's Army was formed, breaking off from the
main Karen guerrilla force, the Karen National Union. Burmese military
attacks on that group have driven tens of thousands of civilians into
border encampments inside Thailand.
The boys appear to have instilled a special fanaticism among their
followers, setting a severe regimen in which liquor, drugs, fighting and
swearing are banned. The twins, however, chain-smoked throughout the
recent interview.
For the most part, the Htoo brothers command guerrillas who are older
than they are. But it remained unclear how the boys exercised their
leadership.
In the last week, the God's Army fighters have come under intense attack
from Myanmar's Army, and Thai troops have shelled them from across the
border to prevent them from fleeing into Thailand.
Shown on local television on Monday, one masked gunman who called
himself Nui said: "Do not be worried. We will not hurt any hostages. We
want to tell the world how Karen and Burmese refugees live during the
fighting."
He added: "We will go back when our demands are met, when we reach an
agreement. We still don't have any definite plan on how to return."
"We didn't harm anyone," he said. "We have released many hostages."
Periodically through the hot afternoon on Monday, a freed hostage would
emerge from a gate outside the emergency room, escorted by a gunman
wearing a white shawl. A Thai man in a blue plaid shirt would approach,
hands in the air, and lead the hostage away.
On Monday the Thais handled the siege gingerly, keeping their troops at
a distance from the hospital and agreeing, in mobile-telephone
negotiations, to halt their shelling and allow wounded Karen civilians
to cross the border for medical care.
"We will deal very carefully with the situation," said the army
commander, Gen. Surayud Chulanond. "Our first priority is that every one
of the hostages has to be safe. We will focus on a policy of
negotiations."
But with the border a continuing source of tension between Thailand and
Myanmar, the commander was careful to say that no armed fighters would
be given medical care or sanctuary.
The attack was an embarrassment for Thailand, which took a soft approach
to previous Karen hostage-takers who occupied the Myanmar Embassy in
Bangkok for 25 hours in October and then were given safe passage by
helicopter back to the border.
The five embassy hostage-takers, calling themselves the Vigorous Burmese
Student Warriors, then took refuge with the God's Army fighters. One
news report said some of them took part in the hospital takeover, but
that could not be confirmed.
Tensions between the two countries rose after the siege, as the
authorities in Myanmar closed the border for two months and strengthened
their military presence.
A government spokesman in Myanmar issued a statement on Monday saying:
"It is about time these armed men are treated as terrorists by the
international community. Myanmar is committed to the elimination of
armed terrorism."
Thai officials vowed to be tougher this time, calling the takeover of a
hospital "international terrorism."
"This time the hostage-takers should be considered a terrorist group,"
the government's security adviser, Prasong Soonsiri, said on Monday.
"They have become emboldened after we let them go last time."
The local member of Parliament, Boonmark Sirinaovakul, took a similar
line saying: "The second time, they should not be forgiven. To seize a
hospital is something that international law would not allow."
He said undercover policemen, who had entered the hospital pretending to
be medical workers, had told him that there are eight hostage-takers,
although other reports put the number as high as 14.
The use of force by the rebels and the embarrassment to Thailand in the
two sieges have created a difficult situation for the thousands of
Burmese dissidents who have taken sanctuary in Thailand since a violent
military crackdown in 1988.
On Monday, members of those more mainstream groups condemned the
hostage-taking.
"We are very sad about this," said Maung Maung Aye, general secretary of
the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group of
dissidents and guerrillas based on the border. "We were not involved.
This is a terrorist action that violates Thai sovereignty. We are very
worried for the hostages."
A Thai television cameraman, allowed inside the hospital on Monday,
filmed patients sitting glumly on benches and gunmen in black knit masks
talking on mobile telephones.
Witnesses said the rebels had asked the authorities to send them 15
portions of rice without pork as well as milk. They were also reported
to be asking for cigarettes.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: A SECOND HOSTAGE INCIDENT FORCES
THAILAND'S HAND
January 26, 2000, Wednesday
A second hostage incident forces Thailand's hand
BYLINE: Justin Pritchard, Special to The Christian Science Monitor
RATCHABURI, THAILAND
Rebels from Burma take a Thai hospital Jan. 24, turning Thais against
the cause of Burmese dissidents.
A group of gunmen opposed to Burma's military government slip into
neighboring Thailand, storm a building, and hole up with scores of
hostages. Some 24 hours later, the siege is over and the hostages are
unharmed.
Twice in the last four months, that scenario has riveted Thailand. In
early October it was in Bangkok at the Embassy of Myanmar, as Burma is
called by its government. This week it was at a hospital in this dusty
provincial capital. But the parting images from the two incidents could
hardly differ more. So too, it appears, the fallout from the two
incidents will be poles apart.
Last October, hostages from the embassy cheered their captors, who,
after gaining the international attention they desired, were flown by
Thai helicopters to the border jungle with Burma and released. On Jan.
25, captives fled the sprawling hospital in terror; their captors had
been killed, following a shoot-out with Thai armed forces.
The about-face is revealing. After years as a haven for refugees,
Thailand now fears that the country might become a prime target for
terrorists with a public relations message. Though not yet official,
such a retreat from the country's open-arm policy on refugees like those
fleeing the brutal Myanmar military junta appears inevitable.
"We have, up to now, always based our treatment of these ethnic groups
on humanitarian grounds," said Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Don
Pramudwinai. "We may have to sit down with other agencies to review
whether there would be any change in this policy."
Since the 1970s, Thailand has hosted hundreds of thousands of people
fleeing war-torn regional neighbors like Cambodia and Vietnam. Now, only
104,000 refugees from Burma remain in 11 makeshift camps. Dissidents
started leaving Burma in 1988, when the junta cracked down on a
burgeoning pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi. Meanwhile, ethnic groups have fled fighting between their
hardscrabble armies and the Myanmar military.
One such ethnic minority is the Karen,a hill tribe with some Christian
members in a predominantly Buddhist country. The Karen have fought for
an independent homeland in Burma since the British quit their colonial
outpost in 1948. But their fight turned desperate over the last two
weeks. Karen soldiers from a faction called God's Army, led by
chain-smoking 12-year-old twin boys, took the hospital after a recent
offensive from both Thai and Myanmar troops. They demanded a cease-fire,
which they got, as well as medical care for fallen comrades.
The twins are said to enjoy powers that make them both immune in battle
and revered leaders. Their legend began when they helped repel a
government attack in 1997. That they apparently have black birthmarks on
their tongues, believed to be a sign of divine favor, has enhanced their
following. It was not known whether they were among the attackers.
The captors could hardly have blundered more in their tactics. The
hospital they chose to raid is a sprawling complex with many small
buildings that lent itself to a surreptitious counterattack, which came
around 6 a.m. Jan. 25. Their timing was terrible as well - Jan. 25 was
Thai Armed Forces Day, an occasion to trumpet military might, not lose
face over a stalemate at the hands of rag-tag rebels.
Unlike the embassy siege, when some in the Thai government lionized the
raiders as "student activists struggling for democracy," the hospital
episode seems to have turned the Thai populace and its elected leaders
against the Karen.
"What happened yesterday was very different than the embassy takeover.
It was a direct transgression of Thai sovereignty," says Chaiwat
Satha-Anand, a political science professor at Bangkok's Thammasat
University. "If you listen to call-in radio, you have heard ... a
dangerous hatred toward the Karens and by extension the Burmese and
others. "This dangerous nationalistic sentiment has been whipped up as a
result." Mr. Chaiwat notes that the government might have felt pressure
to act decisively ahead of February's United Nations community
development meeting in Bangkok. "A violent response could not be avoided
from the viewpoint of the state," Chaiwat says.
The beleaguered ruling Democrat party will certainly mine all the
political gold from the incident. And that could well mean renewed
crackdowns on pro-democracy dissidents who fled Burma and now carry on
their campaign from Thailand.
At least those are the fears of groups like Alternative Asean - Burma, a
nongovernmental organization that supports democratic rule in Myanmar.
"Overall, Thailand has born the brunt from the actions of the Burmese
government," says Debbie Stothard, a group spokeswoman. "It's terribly
unfortunate that there may be a backlash on the very people that are
fleeing this violence - the refugees."
And that, she said, is a case of blaming the victims."In [the hostage
takers'] minds, they think, well, we have treated the hostages well.
They have not lived in a world where detaining someone with force is
actually unacceptable," she says. "It's as though they came from a
different planet and that planet is ruled by the Burmese military regime
and their values. This is why there are people who think this way."
Bottom line, Thailand doesn't want to hear it right now.
"We tried the soft way before," said Lt. Gen. Thaweep Suwannasingha,
regional Thai Army commander. "We were concerned about patients in the
hospital and other innocent people. We had to do it."
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
AFP: TWO DEAD REBELS WERE PART OF OCTOBER SIEGE AT MYANMAR EMBASSY:
BANGKOK
Tuesday, January 25 5:52 PM SGT
BANGKOK, Jan 25 (AFP) -
Two Myanmar rebels shot dead during a raid to free some 500 hostages at
a Thai hospital were involved in a similar siege at Yangon's embassy
here last October, a Thai foreign ministry official said Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudhvinai said 10 God's Army rebels
were shot dead in the pre-dawn raid, including "Johnny" and Min Thin,
also known as Preeda, who were believed to have taken part in the
October embassy siege.
Johnny, Min Thin and three other gunmen were reported to have been
hiding out at the God's Army jungle base since fleeing the Bangkok in a
Thai-supplied helicopter, exchanged for the release of their 38
hostages.
Don said the two were shot dead by Thai commandos who stormed the
Ratchaburi hospital, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of here Tuesday,
freeing all hostages unharmed to end the day long drama.
"We tried to solve the problem in a peaceful way by negotiation but it
didn't succeed," Don said.
"The Thai government can't accept terrorist action, it will not happen
again," he vowed, adding that Bangkok would continue to "keep ears and
eyes open" for any signs that the conflict between Myanmar's military
rulers and ethnic rebel groups could spill over into Thailand once more.
Johnny, or Kyaw Oo, led the so-called Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors
(VSBW) during the seige at the Burmese embassy.
The leaders of God's Army, two twin 12-year-old boys believed by their
followers to have mystical powers, were not among those shot dead in
Tuesday's commando raid, Thai officials said
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
DVB: BURMESE OPPOSITION GROUPS BLAME GOVERNMENT FOR THAI HOSPITAL
SEIZURE
Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 24 Jan 00
Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 24th January
Dear listeners. Democratic Voice of Burma [DVB] has contacted several
organizations to obtain their views on God's Army's seizure of a Thai
hospital. Ko Aung Thu Nyein, ABSDF [All Burma Students' Democratic
Front] general secretary, and U Than Htut, National League for Democracy
- Liberated Area [NLD-LA] general secretary, gave their respective
views.
[Aung Thu Nyein] As we see it, today's problem is basically related to
the social problem in our country Burma. The fighting in Burma has
crossed the border and spilled over to Thailand. That is how we evaluate
the situation. Moreover, it suggested an act by a very frustrated and
cornered group of people. As for us, we have no reason to support them
because the Geneva Convention clearly states that hospitals and the
public must not be harmed even during a war between two rival forces. We
do not support such an act and we hope this problem will be solved
peacefully. On the other hand, we, on behalf of all the Burmese
opposition forces, express our sincere shock over this untoward incident
to the Thai people.
The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] has always branded the
Burmese opposition groups as terrorists. Just pointing an accusing
finger will not solve any problems. We believe these problems can be
solved only when we obtain real peace in our country. If these
fundamental problems are not solved correctly this kind of problem will
continually arise. Similar terrorist acts such as the one currently
taking place in Thailand could very well take place in our country
anytime because the problems are not solved correctly and the main
culprit, I think, is the SPDC.
[Than Htut] I would like to explain two views. One view is, to endanger
the lives of innocent people to save other innocent people is not right.
This way of solving SPDC's military and political pressure is an
undesirable act. This is one view. Another view is, the two children
leaders of God's Army, I have seen these two kids in a photo, they are
only adolescent children. Why do these children pick up arms and fight
the SPDC military clique? Do such revolutionary groups led by children
exist in the world today? What do you suppose they should do when they
have seen their sisters and mothers brutalized and raped by the SPDC
military clique. They will definitely pick up arms. That is another
view.
In general, as long as the SPDC military junta rules Burma this way and
continue bullying the people this kind of problem will not remain an
internal problem anymore but becomes a regional one. This is my view.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
JAPAN ECONOMIC NEWSWIRE: JAPAN TO GRANT SPECIAL PERMITS TO 12 OF 21
OVERSTAYERS
January 25, 2000, Tuesday
TOKYO, Jan. 25 Kyodo
The Justice Ministry is set to grant special residence permits to 12 out
of 21 overstaying foreigners who filed petitions last September with
immigration authorities to officially allow them to live in Japan,
ministry sources said Tuesday.
If Justice Minister Hideo Usui gives final approval to the plan, it
would be the first time for the Japanese government to issue the permits
to overstayers in similar circumstances. The permits are usually issued
to overstayers who are married to Japanese.
The ministry, however, plans not to issue the permits to five of the 21
and will withhold its decision on the remaining four, the sources said.
The five will be ordered to leave Japan immediately, they added.
The ministry will notify the 21 of the decision after the justice
minister gives his final approval in a few days, the sources said.
The sources said the ministry takes into account the fact that the 12
overstayers -- three Iranian families -- have lived in Japan nearly 10
years and their children attend Japanese schools.
The ministry judged it would be difficult for the 12 to live in their
home country because they have established themselves in Japan, and due
to the fact their children speak only a little Persian, the sources
said.
The 21, ranging in age from 2 to 68, comprise 17 Iranians, three Myanmar
nationals and one Bangladeshi. Three were born in Japan and the rest
entered the country from 1989 to 1994.
As for the five overstayers who are not expected to receive the
residential permits, the ministry judged that the family of three
Myanmar nationals can return to Myanmar because their child is young
enough to adopt to a new environment, the sources said.
The ministry also judged that although two are suffering from injuries
that occurred at their workplaces in Japan, they will be able to receive
treatment in their home countries.
The sources said the ministry needs more time to confirm reasons why a
family of four Iranians are seeking the permits.
The 21 overstayers turned themselves in to the Tokyo Regional
Immigration Bureau on Sept. 1 at the risk of deportation, to call on the
Japanese government to grant them the residential permits.
The bureau questioned them and studied each case without detaining them.
Late December, a group of 17 Iranians who have overstayed their visas
did the same. The 17 are five couples and their seven children -- four
of whom were born in Japan.
There are a total of 268,421 foreigners overstaying their visas in Japan
as of July 1 last year, according to the ministry. Most of them are
believed to have come to Japan around 1990 -- the peak of the bubble
economy when the nation was suffering a labor shortage.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: CRISIS ENDS IN CLINICAL STRIKE
January 26, 2000
Hostages unharmed in lightning raid, Three terrorists involved in
storming of Burma embassy
At least three of the students involved in the October 1999 storming of
the Burmese embassy were among the 10 God's Army guerrillas killed in
the operation that ended the Ratchaburi siege yesterday.
But confusion still remained over their exact identities. A senior
Special Branch officer who examined the bodies positively indentified
two as those of "Johnny" or Kyaw Ni, and Beda, also known as Preeda or
Nui.
The third was identified by Special Branch as Hla Min or Ye Yint, a
former Burmese student who was involved in the hijacking of a Union of
Burma Airways flight from Rangoon to Mergui on Oct 18, 1989. The plane
was diverted to U-tapao airbase, and Hla Min was sentenced to seven
years in jail and released in March 1998.
Dissident sources, however, insisted that Johnny and Ye Yint were not
among those killed. Johnny, they said, had hurt his leg and did not take
part in the siege. Ye Yint was said to be in the United States.
Dissident Burmese sources confirmed, however, that Beda was among the
dead. They said there were altogether five students involved in the
God's Army operation, three of whom were involved in the embassy siege.
The fate of the 10 guerrillas was sealed hours before the pre-dawn raid
was launched. The decision to storm the hospital was made after
authorities turned down the guerrillas' demand for safe passage out of
Thailand.
The decision was made by the Nat ional Security Council with a green
light from Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai to take swift and firm action
despite the risk to hostages.
An explosion, apparently from a smoke bomb, shattered an uneasy silence
in Ratchaburi township at 5.30am yesterday and was the signal for
anti-terrorist commandos to go into action.
It was also intended to be a diversion for the 10 guerrillas holding
more than 100 hostages in the out-patients and administrative building.
The raiding party, numbering about 200, was drawn from the Lop
Buri-based army special force, the Swat team of the Crime Suppression
Division and the Naresuan police paratrooper unit in Prachuap Khiri
Khan.
With the explosion, dozens of security personnel rushed into the
hospital compound from three sides.
Simultaneously, several troopers who had earlier infiltrated the
building disguised as medical staff, patients and visitors, also struck
at the hostage-takers with concealed weapons which had been smuggled in
hours earlier.
The commandos had been quietly deployed near the hospital shortly after
the siege began but they were kept out of sight until given the signal.
But several of their members, in plainclothes, had mingled among medical
staff and patients without anybody noticing.
Sources said between 30-40 troopers had successfully infiltrated the
out-patients department and other buildings. Weapons had been smuggled
in through the kitchen, which was not policed by the hostage-takers.
About 20 sharpshooters had earlier slipped inside the hospital and took
control of the Chao Fah Maha Chakri building adjacent to the
out-patients department. According to sources with access to the
operation, the rescue was supposed to have been launched at 3am.
However, planners changed the scheduled launch because of the presence
of a large crowd of reporters and photographers who had gathered outside
the hospital.
An impromptu press conference was called instead as a ruse to get the
journalists away from the hospital so as to facilitate the raid.
The storming of the out-patients department began at 5.30am. According
to Pol Gen Pracha Promnok, the national police chief, the first shot was
fired by the guerrillas when a staircase used by the commandos to scale
the building collapsed. Bursts of automatic gunfire and thuds of grenade
explosions were heard during the hour-long gunbattle.
When the shooting finally subsided, nine guerrillas lay dead on the
second floor of the out-patients department. The 10th was killed in
front of a nearby vocational college after he managed to slip out of the
hospital to try to escape.
Witnesses, who refused to be identified, said some of the guerrillas
wanted to surrender but it was too late because the assault had already
started. One witness said the guerrillas were rounded up and told to
strip. They were then shot one by one.
The bodies of the guerrillas are now at the Police Forensic Institute in
Bangkok.
The police seized seven M-16 rifles, two AK-47 rifles and one 11mm
pistol, five smoke bombs, 28 M-26 grenades, 10 M-79 grenades, one
grenade launcher and 800 rounds of ammunition.
None of the 100-plus hostages was killed or wounded. One 78-year old
woman was found dead, apparently of heart failure. Eight members of the
anti-terrorist squad which stormed the hospital were wounded.
After the guerrillas were accounted for, bomb disposal officers from the
Army Engineering Regiment based in Ratchaburi moved in to search the
entire hospital for hidden mines and bombs, following the rescue
operation.
Officials and employees of the hospital who had been held hostage were
allowed to leave in groups and those who had stayed outside were allowed
to get in for work later in the day.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: PM CHUAN DEFENDS RETALIATION
January 26, 2000
'Rebels were wrong to attack hospital'
Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Wassana Nanuam
The use of force to end the hospital siege by God's Army guerrillas was
inevitable after authorities tried unsuccessfully to resolve the crisis
through peaceful means, the prime minister said yesterday.
Chuan Leekpai was defending yesterday's pre-dawn raid on the hospital by
a team of Thai commandos in which all 10 guerrillas of the Karen God's
Army were killed. He said the rebels were undeniably wrong for taking
over a hospital.
"We are not pleased with them. A siege of any medical unit has never
been accepted internationally," Mr Chuan said.
It was an ungrateful act by an ethnic group which has been taking
shelter on Thai soil for so long, to behave in a manner harmful to this
country and its people, he said.
"They should not cause trouble for us. This is unacceptable to the Thai
people," he said.
God's Army, an ethnic Karen minority force fighting Burmese troops in
border areas, used more than 500 patients and medical personnel to
bargain for medical help for its wounded rebels and civilians.
Negotiators tried to talk the 10 captors into freeing the hostages and
promised to allow wounded civilians to cross the border for treatment,
but the rebels turned down their proposals.
Mr Chuan said it would have been better had no lives been lost."But we
could not avoid it. We did what had to be done," he said.
Supreme commander Mongkol Ampornpisit said the commandos did not want to
kill anyone but could not avoid using weapons as the safety of hostages
was a priority.
Gen Mongkol said the Karen rebels were terrorists because they were
armed with heavy weapons.
He said agencies concerned would soon identify the captors and look into
the hostage crisis to find out if any other groups were involved.
Thailand strictly considered the commando raid on the hospital an
internal affair, he said, shrugging off questions about how Burma would
react to the incident.
He said credit must go to army chief Surayud Chulanont and police chief
Pracha Promnok for jointly laying down a strategy to end the crisis, and
the commandos who risked their lives to save the hostages.
M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the deputy foreign minister, believed the
sympathy of the international community was with Thailand and did not
blame the country for using force.
He said the crisis should not make other countries mistake Thailand as a
haven for terrorists, saying that the spillover of border clashes into
Thailand had forced God's Army to take over the hospital.
It also proved that Thailand could use stern measures against intruders
when necessary, he said, adding the government had been criticised as
being too lenient when it allowed two Burmese dissidents who seized the
Burmese embassy in Bangkok last October to go free.
Kachadpai Buruspat, the National Security Council secretary-general,
said investigators would see if there were any links between the Burmese
dissidents involved in the embassy siege and the Karen God's Army.
He said security would be stepped up along the Thai-Burmese border to
prevent acts of revenge.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Don Pramudwinai said the government hoped the
decisive action would send a strong message that such a situation would
not be tolerated in the future.
Mr Don reaffirmed Thai-Burmese relations were not affected as the
Burmese government knew Thailand helped the ethnic minorities on
humanitarian grounds only.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: PUBLIC IN SUPPORT OF COMMANDO OPERATION
January 26, 2000
Rebels condemned for raiding hospital
Anjira Assavanonda and Supoj Wancharoen
The use of force by Thai security agencies to end the hostage crisis has
received strong public support.
The swift and decisive action at dawn yesterday resulted in the killing
of all 10 guerrillas of the Karen God's Army.
Boonchai Chuacharnwong, a 32-year-old vendor in Bang Khun Non, said he
understood how minority groups in Burma were repressed by the Burmese
junta. But they lost his sympathy when they carried weapons and created
chaos in this country, which has been like their second home, Mr
Boonchai said.
Sawat Yensamut, a retired civil servant, said the government needed to
use force to teach the terrorists a lesson. But he also criticised the
country's intelligence agencies for failing to ensure security for Thai
citizens, particularly those in border areas.
Saengwong Kongsuwan, 28, expressed sympathy for the killed terrorists
because, she said, they did what they did for their families and
country.
"But we have a duty to protect our families as well. The worst was that
they did this to a hospital."She speculated the government decided to
attack the terrorists because it did not want to lose face like it did
in last October's Burmese embassy siege.
Even human rights activists, while sympathetic to the rebels' cause,
said the government's action under the circumstances was
"understandable". However, they asked that Thai people have more
understanding and sympathy for the rebels as well as other ethnic
minority groups.
Kamol Kamoltrakul of Forum Asia said the rebels were wrong to take over
the hospital.
"The government had no other choice," he said, because if the hostage
situation had been allowed to drag on, innocent patients at the hospital
would have been the ones to suffer most.
"While we understand the repression these Karen rebels have been facing,
we disagree with their siege of the hospital. As a human rights
organisation, we need to think of the rights and safety of the patients
as well," Mr Kamol said.
He called on the government to seek long-term solutions to the problem
of hostage-taking in Thailand by armed Burmese rebels, saying it stemmed
from political suppression and domestic violence in Burma.
He suggested the government raise this issue at international forums,
calling for measures against the Burmese military junta.
Jaran Dithapichai, president of the Union for Civil Liberty, also
believed the junta's suppression of ethnic minority groups had
instigated the rebels' action.
While he was glad patients and medical staff who were held hostage were
safely rescued, he was saddened by the rebels' death.
Mr Jarun said he understood why such a decisive operation was
undertaken, but he would rather have wanted a less violent end to the
standoff.
A well-known political scientist at Thammasat University believed the
Karen raiders had no intention to harm the hostages. He said they
resorted to the act of terrorism only as a means to communicate their
grievances to the outside world.
However, Chaiwat Satha-anant, a proponent of non-violence, said every
state had a duty to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, and
the act of terrorism destroyed that sense of security.
"On the government's part, the act is regarded as a violation of the
country's sovereignty and it cannot allow such events to take place
again," he said.
He voiced concern that the incident could cause Thai society to harbour
negative feelings towards other ethnic minority groups who take refuge
in the country.
"Although it is justified for Thai people to have such negative
feelings, it is worrying if those feelings are intensified without
differentiation between violent and peaceful groups," he said.
"The hospital siege was a kind of political act which, in this case, was
foolish. Anyway, we should not forget that these people are also victims
of violence, and what they did was an act of desperation," he said.
An opinion survey conducted yesterday by Suan Dusit Rajabhat Institute
showed that 88.17% of 1,276 respondents agreed with the government
action.
Some 40.84% of the respondents also believed the incident was partly
caused by carelessness on the part of authorities concerned.
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BANKGOK POST: WITNESSES SAY POLICE SHOT THEM ONE BY ONE
January 26, 2000
Hostage: Guerrillas were kind and polite
See http://www.bangkokpost.com/today/260100_News04.html for photo.
Police shot one hostage-taker after another in the operation that ended
the siege, witnesses in the administrative building said yesterday.
A woman hostage described the government operation as an over-reaction
without regard for the safety of people held in the hospital.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had been detained along
with other hostages under the gaze of six rifle-wielding rebels in one
room until the operation was launched at about 5.30am.
The rebels were "armed men with a soft heart", she said. They did not
hurt anyone and treated the hostages with respect and politeness.
She said the rebels seemed calm and told the hostages the authorities
had agreed to meet their demands and that a helicopter would pick them
up at the hospital at about 10am.
"They promised to set us free after they had left the hospital with the
helicopter. They were so nice to us. They gave us food and water," she
said.
Then came rounds of gunfire from outside. The woman said she saw the
heavily armed police quickly advancing towards the building. But the
rebels did not seem ready to fight back, she said.
The terrorists led the hostages to one room where they had stayed until
the end of the operation.
The police continued to fire on the building while some of the hostages
shouted out to ask them to cease fire, she said.
"Some of the hostages cried. The rebels did not fire in return. [The
police task force] did not seem to care for the safety of the hostages,"
she said.
She said the hostage-takers were about to lay down their weapons and
surrender but it was too late. The police had already stormed into the
building and were closing in on them.
The police team told the hostages to crawl out of the room and head for
an adjacent building, she said. "I thought they would just arrest the
rebels because they had surrendered."A C-6 official of the hospital said
she had hidden on the second floor of the administrative building and
had been told to prepare for any untoward event which might follow the
siege.
The woman official, who asked not to be identified, said she took cover
on the floor of the room where she had stayed and saw the police team
hold the rebels at gunpoint.
"They were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and
kneel down," said the official.
Dr Kitti Suwanprateep, who was in charge of an operation at one
intensive care unit, said he had been told to stay put in his room along
with his assistants until the end of the strike.
"Surgery on a 10-year-old child was carried out under tense
conditions."Prayoon Niyomthat, 56, another hostage, said she was staying
with four other men and one monk. Hearing the gunshots, they crouched
for cover.
Mrs Prayoon said she took off her gold necklace and tossed it under a
bed. "I wonder if I can find it."The woman said she noticed a flurry of
activity among a few masked rebels, including one with long hair.
She said she did not leave the room until she was positive the police
had secured the entire place. "I have never been so scared," said Mrs
Prayoon. "I can't say how relieved I was to see the police."Uthaiwan
Lertvej, 40, a nurse who hid in a building in the rear of the hospital,
said she looked after eight patients along with four colleagues. At
about 3am, she saw police officers slip into the hospital's back yard.
Shortly afterwards, she heard blasts far away in the front part.
Mrs Uthaiwan said she tried to comfort her colleagues and patients
during the one-hour operation.
Kajorn Pongsombat, 34, said the hostages were shocked by the blasts and
gunshots and had not thought about such a lightning strike by the
police.
Seeing the police fire through the windows of the building before they
stormed inside, the man said he found himself shivering in fear.
Pornravee Petkow, 41, a social welfare official at the hospital, who
suffered cuts to his left foot from broken pieces of glass, said she was
going to the toilet on the ground floor of the administrative building
when she heard explosions.
The woman said rounds of gunfire and bomb blasts sent her panicking and
she hid in a toilet. She prayed for her life and was elated when she
heard a police officer break into the building to rescue the hostages.
The hostages were told to crawl out of the administrative building and
head for an adjacent building as the police task force continued to fire
above them.
Ketkanok Chanasalee, 29, a pregnant woman who had been confined to the
hospital, said she was taken out of the hospital hours before the police
operation began.
She gave birth to a baby girl in an operation. She said her baby girl is
strong and weighs 4.5kg.
"I have no idea what to name my daughter after but I don't think it
should be connected with the things that happened here. I was not badly
affected by it and was given normal treatment by my nurses," said Mrs
Ketkanok.
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BANKGOK POST: REPATRIATION OF ALIENS TO INTENSIFY
January 26, 2000
The Department of Employment is intensifying efforts to repatriate alien
workers, especially Burmese, in the wake of the hospital seizure,
according to department director-general Somchai Watana.
"About a million alien workers are currently in Thailand while our limit
for legally registered alien workers is set at only 106,000. The illegal
alien workers are the biggest concern because they are beyond our
control," he said yesterday.
Mr Somchai has ordered his subordinates to launch more efforts in
looking for illegal alien workers especially in Ranong, Kanchanaburi and
Tak pro-vinces which border Burma.
He said vigorous efforts to repatriate alien labour would not affect
Thai operators because they were not suffering from labour shortages.
"Of the 106,000 jobs that we are ready to offer to alien labour,
operators have registered only about 99,000 alien employees with us.
This proves the operators are not suffering labour shortages as they
claim," he noted.
Meanwhile Wut Sukosol, the labour minister, confirmed the authorities
were adhering to the cabinet resolution of Aug 3, 1999, that the grace
period for illegal Laotian, Cambodian and Burmese immigrants working in
plantations in 37 provinces would end on Aug 31 this year. He said any
relaxation of the ruling could give alien labourers a chance to create
problems.
According to the Department of Employment, the state earned 99 million
baht from registration fees of the 99,974 alien workers legally
registered. The majority, 19,200 foreigners, worked in Samut Sakhon,
followed by 11,236 in Ranong. The smallest number was 83 registered
alien workers in Nakhon Phanom.
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BANKGOK POST: MONGKOL REVOKES DEAL NOT TO SHELL KAREN
Jan. 26, 2000
Promise 'depended on rebel surrender'
The promise to hostage-takers that Thai forces will not shell God's Army
camps is revoked because the terrorists failed to give themselves up,
the supreme commander said yesterday.
However, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said yesterday that the agreement
to allow wounded Karen to receive treatment in Thailand would be kept on
humanitarian grounds.
Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit said the rebels were aware of Thailand's
condition that the shelling would stop only if they turned themselves
in, but as they had failed to do so, that condition had not been
fulfilled.
God's Army radicals earlier alleged the Thai army had gone on a military
offensive against the refugee population and maintained the Thai
commander who ordered the bombardment must be prosecuted.
The Thai attack was in retaliation for the deaths of four soldiers of
the Surasi Task Force by mines planted by the Karen guerrillas. The army
only admitted firing "warning shots" at the rebels who were trespassing
on Thai territories but denied firing on their civi-lians.
The rebels' demands focused on the Thai shelling and a request for
Thailand to open the border for their people to take refuge from
Rangoon's military offensive. They also wanted Thai doctors to treat
their people. During negotiations with the rebels who took over
Ratchaburi regional hospital, Thai authorities agreed to stop shelling
and to open the border and offer medical assistance.
Yesterday, Gen Mongkol said the military had a duty to safeguard
terri-torial integrity and to repel any intrusion. Intruders would be
asked to leave and pushed back if they resisted, he said.
Any future incursions by God's Army guerrillas would be met with stern
military retaliation including mortar firing, he said.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: SCHOOLS TO STAY SHUT UNTIL SAFETY ENSURED
January 26, 2000
Mongkol Bangprapa
Education Minister Somsak Prisana-nantakul has ordered the indefinite
closure of schools in Ratchaburi, pending restoration of complete
security in the western province in the wake of the hospital seizure.
The minister said all downtown schools in Ratchaburi and nearby areas
would remain closed until the police and the military were "100%"
confident of local security.
"Even if I didn't order the closure, students and teachers would not go
to school anyway. When it can be confirmed there will be no
repercussions, then the schools will be reopened. This may be tomorrow
or the following day," he said yesterday.
Mr Somsak said he has asked the police and military to boost security
measures to restore the morale of parents, especially those whose
children attended schools near the border.
"Many still fear that students may be abducted as hostages in
retaliation. We do not want that to happen," he said.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES FACING OVERHAUL AFTER SECURITY LAPSE
Jan. 26, 2000
Yuwadee Tunyasiri, Wassana Nanuam and Wut Nontharit
Intelligence units cannot deny responsibility for the hospital raid and
a review of their operations will be launched today, Prime Minister
Chuan Leekpai said yesterday.
However, Mr Chuan said intelligence officials could not know everything
and it would be unfair to expect them to. "They cannot deny their
reponsibility but they should have our sympathy," he said.
"They really couldn't have found out about this group [God's Army]
coming, though they report on the border situation all the time," he
said.
The real problem was the difficulty in spotting a small group slipping
through the 2,400km border with Burma.
Mr Chuan said Gen Surayud Chulanont, the army chief who directed the
rescue operation, would report to the anti-terror committee, and a
review of the work of intelligence units would be undertaken.
Suspicions that other figures were behind God's Army, which may have
received help from Thai individuals or officials, had been raised by the
interior minister and would be investigated.
"It's a doubt in our mind. How did they come in without knowing the
routes at all? It shouldn't be possible," Mr Chuan said.
"We have to see if anyone enticed them in and if someone was
co-ordinating their operations."Kachadpai Burutpas, the National
Security Council secretary-general, said all agencies would work more
closely to prevent any future acts of terrorism.
Mr Kachadpai conceded God's Army might have taken the hospital because
Thailand blocked their retreat from a Burmese offensive. The lack of
intelligence about the takeover suggested the raid had not been
pre-planned.
Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit, the supreme commander, said the intelligence
failure had to be examined and corrected.
"Intelligence is a problem we face and we will have to talk to the
police about it, too. Don't forget that the border has no fences, is
deeply forested and has many minority villages. They can come in
anywhere without passing any checkpoints," Gen Mongkol said.
The co-operation of people who live along the border was essential to
security. Villagers should report any strangers they see, he said.
Banharn Silpa-archa, the Chart Thai leader, was strongly critical of the
intelligence agencies. "The worrying thing is how they let this happen,"
he said.
"Will it happen along other border areas as well? In some areas people
cross without any checks at all. Are the intelligence units in those
area lacking?" Mr Banharn said. "The government has to quickly fix
this."Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the opposition leader, said the seige
warranted a complete overhaul of intelligence operations. Similar crises
could happen again and again, he said.
Gen Chavalit said the government needed to co-operate more with
neighbouring countries in exchanging intelligence information.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: OPERATION LEAVES BEHIND TESTIMONY OF KILLING ZONE
January 26, 2000
Emergency dept and OPD worst-hit areas
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
Silence descended on the usually crowded administrative building, with
bodies, pools of blood, broken glass and bullet holes paying testimony
to the operation that ended the siege.
Damage was particularly serious in the emergency and out-patients
departments, which became the killing zone. Ceilings, walls, sliding
doors and windows were pockmarked with bullets.
Cigarette butts were everywhere-in pools of blood, food containers and
empty water bottles-on the first and second floors.
Telephone cables and electric plugs had been pulled from their sockets
in the out-patients department, and the communications control unit
situated behind was destroyed.
Much of the second floor, including the office of the hospital director,
the health education centre, meeting and counselling rooms, were heavily
damaged, with notice boards pulled from the walls, desks displaced and
doors smashed.
Several pairs of shoes and slippers lay scattered on a pathway beside
wooden benches usually occupied by patients.
Patients at other buildings in the hospital were generally distraught
while a new shift of medical staff went about their work as though
nothing had happened.
In one ward, Kularb Saosuchat, 50, told how six of the guerrillas came
in on Monday afternoon and told everyone not to move or cry out. "They
took the nurses with them, saying they needed blood and medicine for
their people," said Mrs Kularb.
One nurse managed to escape their attention by hiding under a desk.
Once the Karen had left, the nurse came out and told the patients to
help lock all doors and windows.
When shots rang out before dawn yesterday, all of the patients were
awake but dared not speak.
"We remained still in our beds until the nurse told us to sit on the
floor in a corner," said Mrs Kularb.
Bua Sae-tieng, 70, who was due to be discharged yesterday after two
weeks in the hospital, said she was not frightened. "It was like a scene
from a film," she said.
Mrs Bua, who was waiting for her grandson to take her home from the
medical ward, said she kept trying to see a helicopter which was
circling. When the shooting started, nurses told the patients to lie
under their beds.
"They told us to stay there for some time otherwise we may be
accidentally hit by bullets," she said.
Korn Dabbaransi, public health minister, inspected the scene and said
the out-patients department would return to normal within 15 days. Other
buildings in the hospital were begining to function normally and would
continue to take care of the remaining 350 patients in the hospital.
Mr Korn confirmed that all the 553 patients who were in the hospital
during the crackdown were safe.
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BANKGOK POST: SOME INJURED PARATROOPERS ALSO AT OCT SIEGE OF EMBASSY
Jan. 26, 2000
200 troops took part in storming hospital
Some of the police paratroopers wounded in yesterday's action had taken
part in the security operation at the Burmese embassy last year.
Pol Sgt Narong Tinghem, one of the eight-man squad wounded in the
hospital, said he had been deployed outside the embassy during the Oct
1-2 raid that ended peacefully.
The Ratchaburi operation was very different, said the 29-year-old member
of the 261st Naresuan paratrooper unit, based in Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Deployed in the operation were 200 men from the 261st and the 90th
Border Patrol Police unit.
Pol Sgt Narong, who was shot in the left shoulder, was in stable
condition at the Mother and Child hospital. The slug did not penetrate
his flak jacket but inflicted a wound.
He said he had climbed a wall from a school into the hospital and came
under fire along with two colleagues. "It was marvellous that we could
save the hostages," he said.
Pol Sgt-Maj Saneh Singpu, 36, sustained an eye injury while storming the
administrative building. He tossed a grenade into the building during
the initial stage of the operation.
"I feel so proud to have been part of the operation. But I feel pity for
my colleagues who were injured. My team killed two of the Karen," said
Pol Sgt-Maj Saneh.
He said Pol Sgt Parinya Atinotham, a subordinate, sustained wounds to
his side from a mine. "It was so tense during the operation. We scoured
all the rooms to find any Karen who might have been hiding after we had
stormed in," he said.
Pol Sgt Parinya was seriously injured and is under intensive care at
Potaram hospital nearby.
Pol Sgt-Maj Banjong Santantuk, 40, climbed a wall near the
administrative building, where he saw some of the Karen standing close
to the hostages.
He said he opened fire and saw some of the Karen drop while others fired
back and retreated into the building.
"We followed the Karen inside the building. We broke the window panes
with our rifle butts and that's how I injured my hand. We remembered one
of the Karen dressed in dark blue and with long hair. The Karen fired
towards us as he moved back inside," said Pol Sgt-Maj Banjong.
The Karen hid in one of the rooms downstairs, he said. It took Pol
Sgt-Maj Banjong 10 minutes or so before he found him and shot him dead.
"This was the toughest operation for me in 20 years," he said. "I am
proud and satisfied with what we've accomplished," said the officer.
Given 90 rounds of ammunition each, the commandos set their weapons on
the semi-automatic mode to minimise the danger of stray fire.
Pol L/Cpl Kajorn Kaewnuam, 27, wounded in the left arm by grenade
shrapnel, was admitted to Muangraj hospital with Pol L/Cpl Sombat
Butpet, 31, Pol L/Cpl Prajin Bua-ngam, 28, and Pol Sgt Suntorn
Saengbuaban, 35. They were transferred to the Police Hospital.
Bangkok Post (January 26, 2000)
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BANKGOK POST: GUNFIRE SHATTERS SHROUD OF SECRECY
The following is a chronology of the events surrounding the storming of
Ratchaburi hospital.
- 9.00pm-midnight (Jan 25)-Three hostages released by guerrillas.
- 1.30am-Reporters were made to believe there would be an army briefing
in a gymnasium. They were later locked up inside the gym as the
authorities feared their work could alert the guerrillas to a rescue
operation plan being hatched. The reporters broke out later to find
barricades blocking access to the hospital premises had been moved
further by another 100m.
- 3.00am-Reporters were ordered to clear the hospital entrance. The
barricades were moved back another 500m amid rumours that a crack force
was about to storm the hospital.
- 3.30am-Lt-Gen Thaweep Suwannasingha, the First Army commander,
announced that Burmese government troops had seized the stronghold of
God's Army guerrillas in Mae Pia Lek. However, the hostage-takers
refused to surrender.
- 5.34am-Explosions were heard from the hospital building followed by a
series of gunshots. A pick-up truck carrying military reinforcements and
two police patrol vehicles rushed to the hospital from their temporary
command post at an adjacent sports centre. The hospital turned into a
battlefield with deafening sounds of gunfire and exploding bombs.
- 5.50am-A helicopter circled over the hospital. On the ground, the din
of gunfire continued to be heard as some of the guerrillas were flushed
out and fired on.
- 6.18am-The intensity of gunfire decreased.
- 6.25am-Sporadic gunshots continued to be heard from different parts of
the building. There were also sounds of glass breaking followed by
grenade explosions and more gunshots.
- 6.37am-Lt-Gen Thaweep prepared to give a news conference.
- 6.46am-Three more shots were heard while it was reported on police
radio that six guerrillas were still loose inside the Sri Nakarin
in-patients building.
- 6.58am-A woman hostage was carried out of the hospital, visibly tired
and shocked.
- 7.00am-Another grenade exploded.
- 7.06am-Three ambulances arrived.
- 7.30am-Bomb disposal experts started searching the building.
- 7.40am-Police and soldiers entered the hospital to gather evidence.
- 7.55am-Two more ambulances and an emergency relief vehicle were sent
to the hospital.
- 8.00am-Ambulances left with a number of sick hostages.
- 8.34am-A police helicopter flew two United Nations officials who were
briefed on the situation back to Bangkok.
- 9.40am-Thirty crack troops accomplished their mission and walked in
two single files out of the hospital to rounds of applause from both
officials and onlookers.
- 10.00am-A fresh medical team and general staff workers relieved their
colleagues who had been trapped inside the hospital.
- 11.30am - The media were allowed inside the hospital.
Bangkok Post (January 26, 2000)
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BANKGOK POST: ROYAL ADVISER VISITS WOUNDED HEROES
January 26, 2000
Privy councillor Kamthon Sinthuvanont yesterday visited eight police
commandos wounded in the storming of the Ratchaburi hospital.
AVM Kamthon made the visits on behalf of HRH Princess Maha Chakri
Sirindhorn, who has expressed deep concern for the wounded policemen.
Two of them were badly wounded and placed under intensive care at the
Police General Hospital yesterday. They are Pol Sgt Parinya Atinotham,
and Pol Sgt Narong Tinghem, both of the 261st Naresuan paratrooper unit
based in Prachuab Khiri Khan.
Pol Sgt Parinya sustained serious injuries to his left leg and right
arm, while Pol Sgt Narong was hit in his left shoulder. The privy
councillor said the wounded commandos would be granted membership of the
royal foundation under the princess's patronage.
January 26, 2000
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BANKGOK POST: 'EXCELLENT! VERY GOOD!' CLAPS SANAN
A Post reporter who was present with Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart throughout the night recalls the atmosphere leading up to
the rescue.
January 26, 2000
Sermsuk Kasitipradit
A massive explosion thundered through Ratchaburi town at around 5.30am.
Once he heard it, Interior Minister Maj-Gen Sanan Kachornprasart looked
relieved.
He appeared confident that the explosion marked the beginning of the end
of the 22-hour Ratchaburi regional hospital siege.
"The operation is starting," he remarked quietly to Interior Permanent
Secretary Chanasak Yuwaboon who was sitting next to him in the guest
house of the army's engineering department of the camp.
A few minutes passed. He smiled when government spokesman Akapol
Sorasuchart, also sitting next to him, informed him the explosion was
carried out by the government's rescue team to divert the Karen rebels'
attention and as a signal to the government's rescue team hidden inside
the hospital to start their operation.
After being fully briefed, Maj-Gen Sanan called Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai's Mor Leng residence in Bangkok.
"Mr Prime Minister, the operation has begun," said Maj-Gen Sanan at
5:40am. He briefed the prime minister for several more minutes.
Maj-Gen Sanan then clapped his hands after being told none of the
hostages were wounded or hurt and that the rescue mission appeared to
have gone off perfectly and only a small number of the anti-terrorist
squad had suffered injuries.
"Excellent! Very good!" he said.
Although Maj-Gen Sanan stayed up all night with his aides at the
military guest house, the key man in charge of the operation was army
chief Gen Surayud Chulanont.
The challenge facing the army chief was how to launch the rescue mission
and gain the element of surprise by putting the rebels off guard, yet
not signal that an operation was under way while under the glare of
press and media attention.
The operation that ended the 22-hour hostage crisis at Ratchaburi
regional hospital was laid down by Gen Surayud who is an expert in
special warfare, an army source said.
Gen Surayud assigned a company of the Lop Buri-based Raider Battalion
led by Lt-Col Sunai Prapuchanay to spearhead the pre-dawn assault, with
support from commandos of the Crime Suppression Division and members of
the Prachuap Khiri Khan-based Naresuan police parachutist camp.
Soldiers of an engineering regiment and the military police were
positioned outside the hospital administrative building.
Gen Surayud began his planning by first examining film footage taken by
a Channel 7 cameraman allowed inside the building by the rebels on
Monday morning.
But it did not provide sufficient details.
And since the guerillas had asked for two helicopters and 10 doctors,
military and police members of the special force disguised as doctors
and medics sneaked into the building to see the inside to ensure safety
for the hostages.
Prime Minister Chuan's unexpected arrival at the Engineering Department
around 11:20pm helped touch off widespread rumours among reporters that
a rescue operation was inevitable.
Maj-Gen Sanan, Deputy Foreign Minister M.R Sukhumbhand Paribatra and
National Security Council secretary-general Kachadpai Burusphat had an
hour-long meeting with the premier after his arrival to discuss the
situation and the government's readiness to execute the plan. Mr Chuan
voiced his concern over the safety of hundreds of hostages inside the
hospital. The arrival of the premier attracted a huge army of reporters
who were not allowed to go inside but were kept at the entrance.
Word had been spread to reporters in front of the provincial hospital to
be on full alert saying that the premier would himself personally direct
the rescue plan.
Maj-Gen Sanan was quite concerned that the operation could lead to
bloodshed if the planned assault was reported on television. He was
confident that the Karen rebels were closely monitoring television news
reports.
Rumours of the government's assault subsided after Mr Chuan returned to
Bangkok at around 00:50.
Mr Akapol tried to divert the attention of reporters over the imminent
assault by convincing them at the department's entrance that
negotiations were still under way and there was no certainty it would
soon be settled.
"Is it a sin to lie to reporters?" the spokesman said.
The interior minister, in a brief interview with the same group of
reporters at around 1:45am while returning to his riverside residence
which was in the same compound, denied the government had a plan to make
an assault.
"You should go and take some rest as you will have to look after me
tomorrow. I won't be able to sleep tonight," Maj-Gen Sanan told his
personal doctor Khanchit Likittanasombat who is a heart specialist from
Ramathibodi Hospital.
The interior minister's remark clearly indicated that something big was
going to happen in the next few hours.
The source said it was also Gen Surayud who lured reporters to one place
by saying there would be a press conference at about 1am for fear they
would be in danger of being hit in a crossfire. The tactic was partially
successful because a large number of the press were locked in a nearby
gymnasium at about 2am.
Mobile television crews were asked not to televise the situation live
prior to the operation, because the rebels were also watching
television.
Before that, news was spread by authorities that they would try to end
the hostage crisis mainly through negotiations.
"We first thought this would not work because Sqn Ldr Prasong Soonsiri
said in an interview after a meeting that decisive action would be taken
while others said they would adhere to talks," the source said.
It was initially agreed that the operation could start at around 3am but
the government spokesman said some units were not yet ready for the
assault causing delay in its execution.
Several military officers who were not fully aware of the pending
assault had expressed doubts that any attack was imminent. They were all
concerned over the safety of the hostages if the government went ahead
with the assault.
The 3am deadline for the assault passed and nothing happened while
Maj-Gen Sanan was regularly briefed by telephone about the latest
developments. "Don't be worried. The raid is now inevitable before
sunrise. The mission will be fulfilled," said a confident Maj-Gen
Boonyoung Bucha, the military police chief.
Despite the passage of the 3am deadline, Gen Surayud waited for two more
hours.
Maj-Gen Sanan sent a signal to the interior permanent secretary at
around 5:20am after he got the last call from the army chief who ordered
troops into action at 5:35am.
The rest is history.
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BANKGOK POST: SWIFT END TO SIEGE DRAWS PRAISE FROM MILITARY JUNTA IN
RANGOON
Jan. 26
Government lauded for decisive action
The Burmese government has congratulated Thailand for bringing a swift
end to the hospital siege early yesterday morning.
In a letter delivered through its military attache, Rangoon lauded the
Thai government and military for their decisive action that ended the
crisis.
A source said the letter was hand-delivered to Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai and Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart by Gen Chettha
Thanajaro, a former army chief who is now Maj-Gen Sanan's security
adviser.
During the crisis, Gen Chettha had been in touch with Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt,
first secretary of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, who
said Thailand had a free hand in tackling the "terrorist act".
The source quoted Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt as saying Burma did not wish to
interfere with Thailand's "internal problem".
"Rangoon is most satisfied we could make corpses out of the Karen
radicals. Their deaths will pre-empt any future sabotage plot," the
source said. "Besides, it would have been a waste to keep them in our
care."Burma yesterday also issued a statement praising Thailand's
action. In the statement, Rangoon said it was "appalled and saddened" to
know the hospital takeover was the work of the same armed group that
seized its embassy in Bangkok in October last year.
Burma "would like to commend the Thai government for its decisive
handling and protection of its citizens from the perils of terrorism and
making it a glaring example that under no pretext or guise can terrorism
be accepted," the statement said.
Premier Chuan Leekpai yesterday said Thai authorities never wanted to
use violence but the action taken early yesterday morning was
unavoidable.
"As long as our neighbours still have problems and refugees still cross
over, we may not be able to avoid this sort of problem," he said.
"These people [ethnic minority rebels] have been in conflict with the
Burmese government. We are in a difficult position because they have
been forced out of the border areas adjoining our territory," he said.
"However, they have relied on our generosity and assistance for a long
time and they should not have caused us any trouble. Thais can not
accept this."Mr Chuan yesterday defended intelligence officials against
strong criticism for failure to find out about the Karen plan to seize
the hospital in advance.
"They deserve understanding because sometimes it's hard to know about
everything," he said.
"Having said that, however, [let me add that] the responsible agencies
cannot avoid taking responsibility."Earlier, Prasong Soonsiri, Mr
Chuan's national security adviser, demanded an investigation to find out
how the guerrillas could manage to sneak in and stage the attack deep
inside Thailand.
The hospital siege caused a serious embarrassment for the government,
already accused by both the opposition and Rangoon after the Oct 1
embassy takeover of being too soft with terrorists.
The Karen God's Army guerrillas who seized Ratchaburi regional hospital
had accused the Thai military of shelling their forces in support of
Burmese army attacks.
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BANKGOK POST: NATIONAL PRIDE AND MILITARY HONOUR SEALED THE FATE OF
GUERRILLAS
January 26, 2000
Harsh action was deemed necessary
Sermsuk Kasitipradit and Wassana Nanuam
National pride and military honour sealed the fate of the 10 God's Army
guerrillas, with the prime minister making the final call as early as
Monday evening, when he met his security advisers, an intelligence
official said yesterday.
The decision was unanimous-the terrorists of God's Army would be removed
by force if they refused to surrender. The officials present, including
Kachadpai Buruspat, the National Security Council secretary-general,
Prasong Soonsiri, the PM's security adviser, and the armed forces
commanders, were in no doubt, said the source who was present.
Adm Thira Haowcharoen won broad agreement when he said the country's
international standing would be damaged without decisive action.
"The prime minister supported harsh action to bring the crisis to a
quick end before it could become more complicated," the source said.
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, who had been monitoring
developments from a military base in Ratchaburi, said the rebels had it
coming. "They deserved it because they brought much trauma and suffering
to the Thai people, especially those in the hospital," he said. "I felt
sorry for people inside the hospital who might be shocked by the raid
but the government had no alternative".
No country would tolerate such a provocative act against innocent people
in a hospital. "A hospital should be the safest area even during wartime
but these terrorists seized it and threatened to harm people inside if
their demands were not met," he said. "Such action is totally
unacceptable."The government was fully aware of the political
repercussions from a botched raid but that was the least of its worries.
"What concerned us most was the safety of our men while executing the
plan and the people in the hospital."Maj-Gen Sanan said the Ratchaburi
siege was different to the Burmese embassy seizure by armed student
activists seeking democracy.
"We had to take a different approach since the latest incident was
carried out by armed terrorists. "This time they encroached on our
national sovereignty so we had to be firm.
"Public outcry would be enormous and could even bring down the
government if they were allowed to cross back into Burma," he said.
Although Gen Surayud wanted a peaceful end, he realised this could not
be because the terrorists refused to give up.
But also at the back of the minds of the military was their honour.
"Those Karen were unfortunate to have been dealt with by a decisive man
[Gen Surayud]," said an officer who took part in the operation. "The
Karen trod on the dignity of Thai soldiers."The source said Gen Surayud
set a deadline to end the crisis within 24 hours since he did not want
the Karen guerrillas to be on Thai soil on Jan 25, Armed Forces Day.
Gen Surayud chose to launch the action at dawn, almost the same time the
Karen took over the hospital a day earlier. The Karen were caught off
guard, having been worn down after a long night.
The source said: "Gen Surayud did not sleep and after the raid left for
the Armed Forces Day parade."Gen Surayud said the army had no choice and
asked for public understanding over reports the Karen were all shot in
the head. "We had to take decisive and swift action to save our men's
lives," he said.
Maj-Gen Boonyoung Bucha, chief of the 11th Army Circle, said Gen Surayud
had made a great present for Armed Forces Day. "The plan was perfecly
executed," said Maj-Gen Boonyoung.
Bangkok Post (January 26, 2000)
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THE NORTHERN ECHO (UK): DEMOCRACY PRISONER WAS DENIED CARDS AT CHRISTMAS
January 25, 2000
THE mother of jailed democracy protestor James Mawdsley has criticised
Burmese authorities for refusing to deliver Christmas cards to him.
Mr Mawdsley, 26, a former Hexham schoolboy, is serving a 17-year
sentence for illegally entering the country and handing out
anti-government leaflets.
He is a passionate campaigner for the elected government, which was
prevented from taking power by the country's military junta.
His mother Diana, a nurse from County Durham, urged people to show their
support for him by sending Christmas cards.
But she says they were sent back from Burma because they were not
addressed to Myanmar, the name given to the country by the regime.
"They are just being petty and vindictive," said Mrs Mawdsley. "They
have returned cards and put a red ring around the word Burma.
"People who were good enough to send James cards have written to me,
enclosing the cards. At least they have sent the cards back instead of
throwing them in the bin."
Mrs Mawdsley is urging people to send James cards for his birthday on
Valentine's Day next month.
Mrs Mawdsley plans to join other members of her family in London for a
protest on James' birthday, organised by the Jubilee Campaign.
Anyone who wants to write to James should send their letters care of the
British Embassy, 80 Strand Road, Yangon, Myanmar.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
OTTAWA CITIZEN: CANADIAN COMPANY INVESTS IN MYANMAR OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
National/International Business News - Ottawa Citizen Online
Tuesday, January. 25, 2000
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A Canadian company has signed an
agreement to exploit gas and oil reserves in western Myanmar, the
government said Tuesday.
The production-sharing agreement between the government's
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and Prime Resource Management
(Cyprus) Ltd., which was signed Monday, calls for the Canadian company
to explore an area 280 kilometres northwest of the capital, Yangon, and
produce natural gas and oil.
The amount of investment, commencement of exploration
and other details were not mentioned.
Foreign investment slumped following the Asian financial crisis in
mid-1997. Oil and gas remain the predominant sector for foreign
investors, comprising about 35 per cent of approved investment in
Myanmar.
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THE NATION: NO WAGGING TONGUES AT RATCHABURI
January 26, 2000
UNLIKE last October's hostage crisis at the Burmese Embassy, authorities
in charge of the 24-hour drama in Ratchaburi carried out an entirely
different operation -- including limiting media access -- and one that
ended in widespread praise in spite of many unanswered questions.
Two hours after the commandos stormed the hospital in a pre-dawn raid,
the first squad of men-in-black were paraded in formation through an
army of reporters as onlookers, volunteers and fellow officials
applauded them on their successful mission.
Unlike the hostage crisis at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, this time
the media were confined to specific areas, while the local residents and
food vendors were nowhere to be seen. This time around, the men who
called the shots met and drew up their plans without nagging reporters
crowding their doorsteps. Army Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont was not
giving interviews.
At 2 am, just hours before the commandos stormed the hospital, police
asked all television crews to stop live broadcasts, citing security
reasons. A senior Cabinet minister called TV executives in Bangkok and
asked them to cooperate with the authorities as they were contemplating
using force.
But to keep the media at ease, the round-the-clock food and drink supply
for official personnel was extended to the reporters as well.
The authorities have obviously learned from their mistakes last October
when various officials intermittently during the crisis gave interviews
with wrong and misleading information.
At Ratchaburi, no one seemed to want to talk. No one seemed to care or
wanted to speculate on the reasons that drove the young men to do what
they did. And no senior government ministers were firing from the hip
and labelling the gunmen ''democracy fighters''. The fallout from this
statement was tremendous, as Thai-Burmese relations quickly collapsed.
Even at a press conference on the first day of the crisis, Lt Gen
Thaweep Suwanasingha, commander of the First Army Region, had his top
aide standing next to him to keep reporters at bay. In spite of knowing
that their commanding officer had some answering to do, Thaweep's top
aides shot down any probing questions which could put them in hot water.
Naturally, most questions pertaining to the attacks carried out by Thai
soldiers against ethnic Karen rebels who called themselves God's Army
were side-stepped by the commanding general. Instead of convincing
answers, all the press got from one of the most senior army commanders
was a verbal statement that read like a well-prepared script.
In the end, the general failed to convince the press as to why the
artillery pounding against the God's Army was necessary or why it was
necessary to keep the press from documenting last week's attacks or the
influx of about 1,000 Karen refugees.
Moreover, the patients, relatives and medical staff at the Ratchaburi
hospital were indifferent to the political cause of their captors. No
one shed any tears.
The prevailing attitude in Ratchaburi is that justice has been served.
But while it's easy to dismiss the violent takeover of the hospital as a
terrorist act, nonetheless, it's hard not to wonder what drove those 10
young men on the suicidal mission.
BY DON PATHAN
THE NATION
January 26, 2000
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THE NATION: WHAT THEY SAID
January 26, 2000
''All the hostages are safe.'' -- First Army Region Commander Lt Gen
Taweep Suwannasingh.
''Myanmar [Burma] would like to commend the Thai government for its
decisive way of handling and protecting its citizens from the perils of
terrorism.'' -- Junta statement from Rangoon.
''I was in the middle of brain surgery on a 10-year-old boy when the
rebels broke into the hospital. We just locked the doors and finished
the operation.'' -- Doctor Kitti Suwanpatheep, Ratchaburi Hospital.
''The commandos did a great job. These bandits deserved to die because
they were criminals, not people fighting for democracy.'' -- Pheera
Bungching, former provincial governor.
''The hostage takers took good care of us, there was no harm or threats,
they were polite. I was not afraid at all because I knew I would
survive.'' -- Dechachai Klintong, male nurse.
''Everything was carried out as planned, it's not right to do something
like seizing a hospital.'' -- Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai.
''''We should have done this the first time.'' -- Unidentified caller to
Bangkok radio station.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
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THE NATION: CALL TO RELOCATE MANEELOY HOLDING CENTRE
January 26, 2000
DEFENCE Ministry spokesman Lt Gen Sanan Kajornklam has recommended that
in order to sever links between the Burmese rebels and their allies --
Burmese students in exile -- the Maneeloy student holding centre should
be relocated away from Rachaburi.
The Maneeloy Holding Centre was established in 1992 on a 200-rai plot in
Ratchaburi's Muang district to house Burmese students who fled political
persecution in their homeland.
In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Sanan recommended this action
following the successful ending of the hostage-taking crisis at
Ratchaburi Hospital.
He said, ''the relocation should be carried out as soon as possible to
avoid any recurrence of Burma-related acts of terrorism like the seizure
of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok last year and the just-concluded
incident.''
''God's Army rebels are now in a desperate situation. They are isolated
from other Burmese dissidents and under constant attack from Burmese
government troops. The situation worsened after their friends were
killed on Monday. Now they are being driven into a corner,'' Sanan said.
''The number of troops in the rebel army has dwindled to 150 and is
getting less and less after repeated attacks by Burmese troops,'' he
said.
''Screening at Thai-Burma checkpoints would be tightened further to
prevent any armed members of God's Army sneaking into Thailand,'' Sanan
said. However, any unarmed or injured Burmese would be allowed to
receive medical care on a humanitarian basis.
''We have found there are connections between the Burmese students in
the Maneeloy centre and the Burmese who committed acts of terrorism in
Thailand. In view of this the centre should be moved to a new location
to cut the connections,'' Sanan said.
He said it was certain that Burmese students from Maneeloy led the
taking of the Burmese embassy and were also involved in the hospital
siege.
''The Maneeloy centre acts as the headquarters for Burmese terrorism on
Thai soil,'' he said. The students were well-equipped with modern
technology, including mobile phones and computers,'' he added.
In moving the centre, the army would be able to take part in
administering it and officers could help in collecting intelligence
information.
''At present the interior ministry is responsible for administering the
holding centre while the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
provides a spending allowance and budget for the students. The army
could help with the intelligence aspect,'' Sanan said.
He added that the UNHCR has agreed in principle to the idea that the
army takes part in the camp's administration. At present there are about
1,500 Burmese students living in the centre. The UNHCR has set a
condition that only Burmese students eligible for asylum in a third
country are allowed to enter the camp.
National Security Council chief Kajadpai Burutpat said the Maneeloy
centre will eventually be closed down and the Burmese students relocated
to a third country.
Kajadpai warned that students in the centre must not do anything to
damage Thailand. ''The centre is now under tight control to avoid any
new acts of terrorism. The students must not attempt anything that could
stir Thai public opinion,'' Kajadpai said.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)-
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THE NATION: RATCHABURI PEOPLE IRATE
January 26, 2000
THE residents of Ratchaburi do not want to forgive and forget Monday's
capture of Ratchaburi Hospital by 10 armed rebels of the Karen God's
Army, judging from their initial refusal to keep the rebels' bodies on
their soil.
''We should not keep their bodies in Thai territory. It is not worth it.
They created lots of problems for Thais,'' said Veerasak
Wongsiridejvithya, one of about 50 people who waited to catch a glimpse
of the bodies being brought to Kua Lue Temple yesterday.
The bodies of the rebels, shot dead by Thai commandos in a raid earlier
in the day, were buried in cement without any religious ceremony.
''They deserved to die,'' said Tan Noipanitch, a driver. ''What they did
was too much to forgive. If we had let them go they might have come back
and caused the same trouble again.''
However, Tan felt there would still be trouble. ''I believe the group's
leaders will come back to get revenge for their subordinates. I suggest
that officials monitor closely the situation along the Thai-Burmese
border,'' he said.
The capture of the hospital and taking of 700 hostages by Karen rebels
on Monday morning has done nothing to further their cause with
Ratchaburi residents.
They see Karen terrorists as ungrateful thugs who have caused endless
disruptions to the peace and livelihood of Thais and should be dealt
with sternly.
''There is no excuse for staging a siege at a hospital and taking
innocent patients as hostages. The Karens should not terrorise the Thai
people who give them shelter,'' said Sommai Suantri.
His sister had to seek treatment for a stomach ailment at a private
hospital after the terrorists took control of Ratchaburi Hospital.
He said the Karens were making a gross misjudgement by disrupting the
lives of Thais.
Sunee Chalermdusit, a food vendor at the hospital, said she had always
been suspicious of anyone from the other side of the border.
''Although Thai people have been kind to them, the Karens are not
grateful for our generosity. They constantly cause trouble and we should
let the Burmese troops wipe them out,'' she said.
Sunee said she abandoned her goods and fled the hospital compound as
soon as she learned about the seizure of the main building.
Motorcycle taxi driver Pongsak Yaembubpha supported the killing of the
rebels, especially after the siege of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok
last year. ''These terrorists will continue to cause problems,'' he
warned.
The Karen terrorists should realise that they were causing a lot of
grief for Thai people, said Somsak Klinkachorn, another Ratchaburi
resident. ''Who are the Karens to walk all over us?'' he asked.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
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THE NATION: GOVT DEFENDS ACTION AS UNAVOIDABLE
January 26, 2000
THE government yesterday defended its commandos' pre-dawn raid on
Ratchaburi Hospital in which all 10 Burmese rebels were killed as an
unavoidable action to bring the 24-hour siege to an end.
It said the killing of the attackers should serve as a stiff warning to
other guerrillas and show the Burmese government that Thailand does not
tolerate terrorism.
''(The raid) is a statement from Thailand that you (the guerrillas) can
no longer do this kind of thing to us. If you are hurt and need medical
treatment we are happy to help. But we won't stand for sieges,'' PM's
security adviser Sqdr Ld Prasong Soonsiri said.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai yesterday declared the operation a success
and described it as a necessary step.
Anticipating criticism over the use of force, Chuan insisted: ''We had
no choice. We cannot tolerate such violence,'' he said.
''We won't be able to avoid the conflict as long as our neighbours have
this kind of problem. We have to ensure that the refugees live in
order.''
The 10 Karen God's Army rebels killed by Thai commandos yesterday had
stormed the hospital on Monday morning and taken more than 700 people
hostage. They were demanding that the Thai government provide medical
treatment to injured Karen fighters and convince Burma to end its
offensive against their base.
Chuan warned the public not to be misled by their demands, suggesting
that they were not all true.
''In fact, we have assisted the wounded soldiers in Thai territory.
Don't believe what they said. There are several inaccuracies,'' he said.
Chuan also defended the intelligence officials. ''The intelligence
officals may not escape the responsibility but, then, it is hard for
them to know everything. We have to be understanding,'' he said.
''How could they know that this group would take over the hospital?''
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
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THE NATION: BURMA JUNTA DRAWS FLAK
January 26, 2000
BANGKOK-based human rights groups yesterday condemned the Burmese
military junta as the root cause of the hostage-taking at Ratchaburi
Hospital and pleaded for Thais to understand the situation of civilian
Karen refugees.
Five human rights organisations issued a joint statement saying that
they were saddened by the injuries suffered by the Thai authorities and
the deaths of the 10 hostage-takers.
''The incident is a result of the violence that the Burmese military and
its militias routinely inflict on innocent civilians in Burma,'' the
statement said. ''In the past, Thai people have also been subjected to
border incursions, military attack, robbery and murder by the Burmese
military.''
The statement was signed by the Asia Forum on Human Rights and
Development (Forum-Asia), Friends Without Borders, Union for Civil
Liberty (UCL), Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) and
Altsean Burma.
Sarawut Pratoomraj, a representative of TACDB, expressed disappointment
at the death of the Karen hostage-takers and said the government should
have taken juridical action against the group, instead of simply killing
them.
He added that although the armed insurgents did infringe upon Thailand's
sovereignty, the government should have convinced them to lay down arms
and followed international practices against such an invasion.
''I did not think the government would end the siege through such
violence, although there had been pressure from the public, the media
and the Burmese government for it to do so,'' he said.
However, Sarawuth acknowledged that the Burmese rebels' attack on the
hospital was too much for the Thai public to accept.
''I understand that what they had done caused public outrage. However,
the government shouldn't be too sensitive to public feeling in these
cases,'' Sarawuth said.
The human rights groups stated that thousands of innocent civilians
continue to flee the fighting and atrocities in Burma, including those
currently in need of shelter and medical attention in Suan Phueng.
Thailand must not forget that they are innocent civilians needing help,
they said.
A representative of the Burma Lawyer Council (BLC) said he understood
the situation of the Karen refugees along the border, but he did not
agree with the violent path taken by the Burmese rebels.
The BLC member said that the refugees living along the border have often
been treated unfairly by Thai people and Thai authorities.
''The refugees have been exploited and treated as if they weren't human
beings. Many Karen women became victims of gang rape,'' he said.
''However, instead of using violence, I think that we'd better collect
information about the unfair treatment and distribute it among the
international community, asking the world community to put pressure on
those human rights violators.''
Meanwhile, Aung Thu Nyein, general-secretary of the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front (ABSDF) said the capture of the Ratchaburi Hospital was
unacceptable to his group. He said it was a moral issue and the invaders
should have known that hospitals must not be invaded even in a war zone.
''They shouldn't attack anyone or any place on the Thai soil on which
they have taken shelter. If they want to do something, they should
target the Burmese government.''
BY SUBHATRA BHUMIPRABHAS
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
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THE NATION: REBELS 'MAY HAVE SURRENDERED'
SOME of the Karen terrorists may have surrendered to commandos who
stormed the hospital compound in the pre-dawn raid before they were
killed, according to witnesses.
Decha Yoowong, 32, said he was among some 50 hostages who had asked the
terrorists to surrender and some of them even appeared to heed the
advice.
Decha said at first the terrorists, who had been crouching among the
panic-stricken hostages, were heard telling one another that they would
fight to the death.
''The hostages asked them not to put up any resistance, with some of
them agreeing to that,'' he said. Some, it seemed, were going to give in
when they left the hallway where the hostages had taken cover.
However, it was not clear what happened after the terrorists moved away
from the hostages, Decha said.
He said the gunmen herded the hostages to the second-floor hallway of
the main building immediately after the commandos started the raid
shortly after 5:30 am.
One of the Karen was about to explode flammable gas canisters with hand
grenades as the raid began but was persuaded by the hostages to abandon
the suicidal move, Decha said.
He said some 50 other hostages pleaded with their captors not to set off
the grenades and they somehow agreed to that.
''We were all prepared to die. They were about to remove the safety pins
soon after the commandos broke through the hospital gates. But we
persuaded them not to do so,'' Decha said.
According to Decha, a short time elapsed before the rescuers arrived and
ordered all the hostages to hug the ground and started shooting at
anything that moved.
''The commandos sprayed bullets into the room, shattering all the window
panes. None of the hostages were hurt. None of us saw any of the
terrorists being shot because it was still dark,'' he said.
Decha was taken hostage along with four other family members and
relatives when they brought his mother to undergo a minor throat
operation.
Despite their 22-hour ordeal, Decha and some other hostages had some
nice things to say about their captors.
''They were very kind. They didn't hurt or harass anybody. Maybe we were
simply lucky. My family and I have pledged to make merit by donating
money to a Buddhist temple if we escaped unhurt. And we will make good
our promise,'' he said.
Decha's account about a possible surrender by some of the terrorists was
supported by another hostage, a heart patient, who requested anonymity.
The woman said none of the terrorists who were with dozens of hostages
had opened fire on the commandos.
She said the hostages did not the fate of the terrorists who were taken
away. She later learned from the TV news that all of them had been
killed.
Another male witness said a hospital worker had informed the hostages
late on Monday night of an impending raid, telling them that the power
supply would be cut at around 5 am, upon which all hostages were
supposed to lie flat on the ground.
Shortly after the power was switched off, they heard a series of
explosions and gunfire as the commandos came in, said the hostage, who
had brought his son in for treatment.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)---
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THE NATION: CHRONOLOGY OF THE ASSAULT
Jan 24
9.20 pm: One more hostage is released, a 39-year-old woman. She says her
niece is still trapped inside the hospital and that the captors carry
grenades all the time.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai has a 30-minute meeting with Supreme
Commander Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit at Government House. After the meeting
they are rushed off in a motorcade, heading for Ratchaburi.
9.30 pm: Authorities hold another round of negotiations with the
hostage-takers, who want to meet reporters and cameramen from the BBC,
but the TV crew is not at the scene at that time.
10 pm: Officers disguised as medical staff and patients warn the
hostages to be prepared for an incident.
11 pm: Chuan and Mongkol arrive in Ratchaburi and an urgent meeting is
held at the Bhanu Rangsi military camp.
Jan 25
Midnight: Another round of talks is held between authorities and the
hostage-takers.
0.09 am: Six more hostages are released, all of them children.
0.40 am: Three officials are sent inside the hospital to set up radio
communications, in response to a demand by the hostage-takers.
1.10 am: After nearly three hours of talks, the prime minister emerges
with a grim face and refuses to be interviewed.
1.30 am: Waiting media representatives are told that Chuan is to hold a
press conference inside a gymnasium across the street from the hospital.
However, they are informed later that the prime minister has gone and
national police chief Pracha Promnok will hold a press conference
instead.
1.45 am: Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart tells reporters that
negotiations are under way and that the hostage-takers have softened
their stance and want only 10 hostages to go with them in escape
vehicles.
1.50 am: About 200 media representatives waiting inside the gymnasium
discover that the doors have been locked. A commotion ensues and around
15 minutes later they are allowed to leave and discover that barricades
have been raised about 100 metres from the hospital's front gate.
Between 2 am and 3 am: Gunfire is heard sporadically from inside the
hospital.
3 am: A joint police and military force, including police commandos and
anti-terrorist units and crack military teams, begin taking up positions
inside the hospital compound.
3.10 am: First Army Region commander Lt Gen Thaweep Suwannasing calls a
press conference about the negotiations with the hostage-takers. He says
it still cannot be confirmed whether helicopters will be granted to
transport the rebels away with some hostages. Thaweep also asks camera
crews not to televise live pictures of the events at that time. They
agree to his request.
3.20 am: A group of military men surrounds the outside-broadcast van of
TV Channel 9, accusing the crew of breaking their promise of no live
broadcasts. The soldiers try to confiscate cameras and a brief argument
ensues. They are told that no promise has been broken and that the crew
is merely editing the film for later use.
4.20 am: Military and police officers tell reporters, photographers and
cameramen to move further away from the hospital's perimeter fence.
5 am: The situation becomes more tense and media representatives are
told to move even further from the hospital, about 300 metres from the
fence.
Further contact is made with officers who have infiltrated the hospital.
They are told to inform the hostages that power will be cut soon and
that all of them should stay on the floor in their rooms at all times.
5.38 am: Three explosions are heard just a short distance from where the
media representatives are standing, enshrouding the area with smoke. The
commandos rush from their positions to the main hospital building and
several rounds of gunfire and more explosions are heard from inside the
building.
5.40 am: A helicopter hovers above the hospital and points spotlights at
the ground to facilitate the operation.
5.50 am: More than 100 ambulances arrive and stand by in front of the
hospital.
6.10 am: A commotion takes place in front of the hospital. Armed police
and military officers prevent an iTV camera crew from televising the
event live.
6.25 am: The gunfire stops.
6.40 am: The First Army chief tells a press conference that nine
hostage-takers were killed and the last one escaped. He says five
officers taking part in the operation were injured but all the hostages
are safe.
7 am: There is a report that a suspect was arrested on suspicion of
being an agent of the God's Army.
8.15 am: Freed patients are moved to other hospitals.
9 am: The missing hostage-taker was found disguised as a patient, lying
in a bed holding a gun, and was shot by police.
9.05 am: A group of about 30 police and military officers walk out of
the hospital and are greeted with loud applause from people waiting
outside, including media representatives. The media are not allowed
inside the hospital compound.
9.30 am: Prime Minister Chuan tells reporters that the rebels' actions
have been condemned both internationally and locally.
11.15 am: Reporters and cameramen are allowed inside the hospital
compound. Weapons used by the hostage-takers are displayed.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: MAJORITY BACK RAID DECISION
January 26, 2000
THE vast majority of people supported the government's actions against
the group of hostage-takers at Ratchaburi's central health facility, the
Rajabhat Institute's Suan Dusit Poll found yesterday.
In a poll of 1,276 residents of Bangkok and its environs, 88.2 per cent
said the fatal attack was a good solution to the problem and would deter
other rebels from trying to do the same, the poll found.
The poll was conducted hours after the 10 guerrillas were killed.
Four out of 10 people surveyed said shoddy handling of the situation on
the Burmese border or negligence by the relevant authorities had led to
the deadly showdown, the survey said.
Three out of 10 people attributed the security breach to defective
immigration controls.
Asked who should be blamed for the incident, 33.2 per cent of
respondents said all relevant parties, and 23.7 per cent said the
government should be taken to task.
Three out of 10 people surveyed said the government had not learned its
lesson from last October's siege at the Burmese embassy.
-----------
Monday
10pm: Disguised police officers infiltrate hospital, warn hostages to
expect an incident.
11pm: Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai arrives for urgent talks with police,
army chiefs.
Midnight: Negotiations with rebels.
Tuesday
5am: Media ordered back 300m from hospital fence.
5.38am: Bombs go off, commandos storm hospital. Shooting begins.
6.25am: Gunfire ceases.
6.40am: Army chief announces nine gunmen killed.
9am: Missing gunmen found in a bed disguised as patient; shot dead.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: PSYCHIATRIC HELP FOR PATIENTS, STAFF
January 26, 2000
HEALTH personnel, doctors, nurses and patients who were inside
Ratchaburi Hospital are to undergo mental rehabilitation arranged by the
Mental Health Department.
Deputy Public Health Minister Kamron Na Lampun said the department has
dispatched a team of psychologists and psychiatrists to provide mental
therapy to the 700 former hostages who might have been under duress and
are suffering trauma from the harrowing episode.
Kitikorn Meesup, a senior psychologist at the department, said the
victims must receive early treatment or they could regress into
Post-Traumatic Syndrome, with symptoms such as insomnia, hallucinations
and nightmares.
Dr Yongyuth Wongpiromsan, director of the Mental Health Development
Office, said psychologists would divide their patients into those who
were easily panicky and those displaying the ''Stockholm Syndrome'' --
sympathising with the rebels.
Each person would receive two to four weeks' care depending on his
individual experience while being detained in the hospital.
Health Minister Korn Dabaransi said Ratchaburi Hospital would resume
accepting out-patients within 15 days.
About 200 of the 535 in-patients at Ratchaburi Hospital have been
transferred to Mother and Children Care Hospital for treatment.
Physicians and nursing staff have gone back to work to minister to the
patients still remaining at the hospital.
Some parts of the hospital are still off-limits because they have not
been inspected yet for implanted bombs and booby traps.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION : DECISIVE ACTION HELPS THAI-BURMA GOVT TIES
January 26, 2000
THAI-Burmese relations will improve in the short-term because Thailand
dealt decisively with the latest hostage crisis involving armed Burmese
rebels, said acting Foreign Minister MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra yesterday
But Sukhumbhand said for the long-term some bilateral issues need to be
worked on.
Sukhumbhand, who risked his life in exchange for hostages at the Burmese
embassy siege last October, said during the Ratchaburi crisis the
government was thinking of the best way to save the lives of the
hostages.
Don Pramudvinai, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman, said Thailand sent a
strong message to the international community and terrorists that this
is not the place where terrorists can act easily. ''At the moment, we
have not received any report that disagrees with our decisive
handling,'' the spokesman said.
He said that there is no need for Thailand to review its policy towards
the minority groups in the aftermath of the siege. Thailand, he said,
has always pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with its neighbours
and various minority groups.
Sukhumbhand said Thailand will continue to adhere to its humanitarian
principles, which is its approach to dealing with refugees. Unarmed
refugees will be allowed to enter Thailand, he added.
Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung is scheduled to meet his Thai
counterpart Surin Pitsuwan on Sunday in Ranong. Win Aung is leading a
group of Rangoon-based diplomats on a fact-finding tour of the fishery
industry in the southern coastal region of the country.
During the trip, the group will cross by ferry from Victoria Point to
Thailand. Though the trip was planned two weeks ago, it would be the
first high-level contact between the two nations after the 24-hour
hospital siege.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry's spokesman said border security troops
are now on full alert in case God's Army tries to avenge the deaths of
their comrades.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)...
.........................
Police Officers Injured
1. Lance Corporal Parinya Patinotham, 28
2. Lance Corporal Prajin Bua-ngan, 28
3. Corporal Sombat Butrpetch, 31
4. Sergeant Sunthorn Saengpan, 30
5. Sgt Maj Third Class Banjong Sanchanthuek, 40
6. Sgt Maj Third Class Saneh Singphu, 30
7. Corporal Narong Pinghem, 30
All the officers have been admitted to the Police Hospital for treatment
of injuries caused by bomb shrapnel, except for Narong who was shot in
his left collarbone.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)--
------------------
Burmese Rebels Killed
1. Johnny (Not the one who seized the Burmese embassy in October)
2. Bayda or Preeda
3. Mohammad
4. Nyunt Shwe
5. Maung Htoo
6. Kyaw Oo
7. Myint Oo
8. Kyaw Kyaw
9. Nya Twa
10. Unidentified
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
REUTERS/THE NATION: OCT SIEGE LED TO REBELS' DOOM
January 26, 2000
THEIR dreadful fate would not have occurred if Min Thin, also known as
Preeda, and the four other armed rebels who orchestrated October's siege
of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok had not taken refuge in the jungle
base of the Karen rebel group God's Army after fleeing Bangkok.
Preeda, a member of the recently-formed exiled Burmese splinter group
''Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors'', has been confirmed dead along
with nine others reportedly belonging to God's Army, which, until now,
had not been seen as a serious threat to the Thai army.
In the two weeks preceding the hospital seizure, Luther and Johnny
Htoo's 100-200 strong Christian ''God's Army'' had been in a desperate
struggle for survival at its jungle base at Kamaplaw, just inside
Burma's border with Thailand.
The base became a target of repeated attacks by the Burmese army,
supported by Thai artillery, to pressure God's Army to hand over the
five Burmese student warriors to Thai authorities.
Last week the situation took a turn for the worse when some 200 ethnic
Karens in the border area were killed or injured by Thai artillery
shells, according to the guerrillas.
The guerrillas who attacked the Ratchaburi provincial hospital demanded
that doctors treat their wounded and that Thailand stop shelling their
camp.
It was not definitely known if the twins -- denounced as ''child
bandits'' by the Thai military but revered as gods by their followers --
were involved in the attack or whether they were among those killed when
Thai commandos stormed the hospital.
After breaking off from the Karen National Union in early 1997, God's
Army became a haven for extremist Burmese militants struggling against
Rangoon. The Karen National Union has fought the central Burmese
government for more than 50 years.
God's Army unites radical ethnic Karen fighters, Burmese student
activists and gun-toting child soldiers like Johnny and Luther. It is
''the only dissident faction crazy enough to carry out this kind of
action'', explained one Burma watcher.
The cheroot-smoking twins, teenagers who could have stepped straight
from the pages of William Golding's ''Lord of the Flies'', are both
colonels.
Both have black tongues, which by ethnic Karen and Mon tradition is
regarded as a sign of divinity. Their followers believe they have been
sent to save the Karen movement, which was all but wiped out by Burmese
government offensives in 1997.
Those who have met them say they exercise command sternly, banning
drugs, swearing and alcohol. Followers say they possess divine powers,
which protect them in battle.
The Nation, Reuters (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: ANTI-TERRORISM CENTRE TO OPEN
January 26, 2000
AN anti-terrorism centre is to be set up next week to prevent any
hostile activities during the upcoming UN Conference on Trade and
Development next month, a senior security source said yesterday.
The centre would be controlled by the National Security Council and be
operational around the clock during the meeting to be held between Feb
12 and Feb 19, the source said.
The move is in response to concerns about possible acts of terrorism
during the meeting, following the siege of the Ratchaburi hospital.
''There will be hundreds of participants, mostly leaders and decision
makers from 190 countries, attending the Unctad meeting. We want to make
them feel confident about their security while in Thailand,'' the source
said.
A centre controlled by the Interior Ministry has already been set up to
monitor the security and safety of the participants during the
forthcoming meeting. The anti-terrorism centre would be a separate
entity.
The same source said that arrangements for a number of functions and
schedules for the Unctad participants would be changed following the
hospital siege. Some functions which were to be held at the Government
House, would now take place at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: ACADEMICS BACK GOVT OVER USE OF FORCE
January 26, 2000
UNIVERSITY academics were unanimous in their support for the government,
saying it had no choice but to use force to end the hostage crisis
instigated by armed terrorists or the international community would lose
faith in the country's ability to keep law and order.
Assoc Prof Dr Surachai Sirikrai, a lecturer at Thammasat University's
Faculty of Political Science, said the use of force was necessary.
''It was necessary for the government to show its decisiveness. These
terrorists should not have seized a hospital,'' Surachai said.
''Had the government not done this it might have lost credibility,
especially when it is about to hold the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (Unctad) next month.''
Assoc Prof Dr Chaiwat Khamchu, a lecturer from Chulalongkorn
University's Faculty of Political Science, said the government had sent
a warning message to all terrorist groups not to stage a similar action
in the country again.
''Had the government not done it, it would have been criticised for
being indecisive against terrorists,'' Chaiwat said.
Charnwit Kasetsiri, a lecturer at Thammasat University, said the
terrorists had made a mistake by seizing a hospital.
''I think they were in a desperate situation to make a stupid move like
that. Raiding a hospital could not help them win any sympathy,''
Charnwit said.
Chaiwat said any sovereign country would have to act the same way as
Thailand to end a hostage crisis -- with force.
New Aspiration Party leader Chavalit Yongchaiyudh also praised the
operation to rescue the hostages, but he criticised intelligence
agencies for having failed to detect the guerrillas' movements earlier.
Chavalit said all the intelligence agencies should be overhauled.
Chat Thai Party leader Banharn Silapa-archa said the government could
not agree to any demands issued by the terrorists, but had to use
decisive measures against them.
Prasong Soonsiri, a security adviser to the Prime Minister, said the
officials involved in the rescue operation deserved to be complimented.
He admitted the government had weak points in its intelligence
gathering.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: FOUR PATIENTS SUCCUMB
January 26, 2000
AT LEAST four patients died at the Ratchaburi Hospital during the
hostage crisis, relatives and hospital officials said yesterday.
Sa E-ing Waewtapthep, 78, suffered heart failure and died during the
siege, according to Manoon, her 51-year-old son.
She is survived by 10 children -- seven sons and three daughters -- and
50 grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Manoon said his mother, who suffered from diabetes, was to be released
from the hospital in two or three days.
''She should have died with her children by her side,'' Manoon said.
Manoon's brother Sakchai, 47, said he visited his mother in hospital on
Monday morning. He was just walking out of the door when the God's Army
rebels barged in.
''I blamed the Karen for her death. The army did their best,'' Sakchai
said.
Meanwhile, the hospital's morgue reported that three patients died after
the gunmen seized the hospital compound.
Sivasant Klinnopsa, 55, died of shock just before the government troops
moved in. Jua Nopakao (age not immediately known) died shortly before
because of heart failure. The last death was of a monk, whose identify
was not immediately known.
However, a woman found crying after the crisis ended said her father, a
73-year-old monk being treated for lung disease in the intensive care
unit, had died.
A pregnant woman who was scheduled for a caesarean was also one of the
hostages.
Ketkanok Wisuthapayak said she had been admitted to the hospital on
Sunday for a caesarean the following morning.
However, the Karen terrorists stormed the hospital just before she was
to have her operation and the doctor was not allowed to perform the
surgery.
She was left to lie on her bed in a ward on the 3rd floor of the Metta
Building under the care of six nurses.
Later that night, Ketkanok went into labour and the nurses decided to
send her to another hospital.
At approximately 10 pm, hospital staff came to put her on a stretcher
and took her out the back way to avoid being noticed by the raiders.
Ketkanok had a caesarean at the Mother and Child Healthcare Centre at
sixteen minutes past midnight on Tuesday. She gave birth to a baby girl
weighing 4.05 kilograms.
''I didn't panic or get scared because I didn't actually see a
terrorist. They were occupying other buildings,'' Ketkanok said.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: INEPT SECURITY OFFICIALS TO BLAME
January 26, 2000
For 22 hours the country watched stunned as a group of Burmese
terrorists made a mockery of border security and seized hundreds of
hostages -- patients, medical staff and visitors -- at Ratchaburi
Hospital.
Though the rescue operation was carried out professionally to swiftly
end this latest act of terrorism, the public remains perplexed over what
has gone so badly wrong with the country's defence and intelligence
systems.
The 10 Karen guerrillas from the God's Army group easily evaded security
forces along the border and illegally entered the country. They brazenly
hijacked a bus and travelled almost 100 kilometres from the border to
the town centre of Ratchaburi. Within minutes of their arrival, they
stormed the 500-bed provincial hospital and took almost 700 hundred
medical staff and patients hostage.
Their illegal entry and the seizure of the hospital happened despite the
fact that western border security had been beefed up owing to the
fighting inside the Burmese border at Krachom mountain.
As such, the commander of the 9th Army Division which is responsible for
security in the Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi region and the intelligence
community must be called to task and explain their failure.
The 9th Division is regarded as one of the country's best military
units. It has an exemplary record and been tested time and again in
battle.
The division commander, Maj Gen Sanchai Ratchatawan, is known as a
promising staff officer who was appointed to his current post in October
1997. He has had more than enough time to establish his credentials.
Sanchai, who once served as the military attachÈ in France, may have
given of his best to live up to his responsibility. But his best was
apparently not good enough to prevent the armed Karen terrorists from
slipping past border security forces and taking over an entire hospital
deep within Thai territory.
Sanchai has no one but himself to blame for the lapse of security. As
the division commander in charge of border security, he is directly
responsible for knowing which groups constitute a security risk in his
area and for planning strategies to counter them.
The siege of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok in October was probably the
first sign that Sanchai has not done his homework on the God's Army
group. He has subsequently failed to learn his lesson. One of the 10
terrorists involved in the Ratchaburi Hospital siege was also involved
in the embassy fiasco a mere three months ago.
That the Karens were able to pull off this incredible stunt is because
Sanchai has fallen short of professional expectations.
The first rule of border security calls for a thorough military scouting
of the potential security risk. The location of the God's Army base camp
is an open secret that has been reported by the media. Although the camp
is inside Burmese territory, the jungle path linking it to Thailand is
known to locals.
For the past few weeks the border security forces have been on full
alert in the immediate area of the God's Army camp. On top of this,
military and security authorities have been instructed to track down and
arrest the terrorists responsible for the embassy siege in Bangkok.
According to the bus driver who was forced to take the terrorists to
their target, the armed Karen terrorists had slipped easily into the
country. The Karens are supposed to be a high-risk, priority
intelligence target since they took the hostages at the Burmese embassy.
But to all intents and purposes it seems as though our intelligence
community has gone to sleep.
In view of the intelligence failure, official spin-doctors have been
trying to put the blame on the early warning system. In the case of the
Ratchaburi Hospital incident, even the best early warning system in the
world could not have been alerted to the target.
When setting out from their base camp, the terrorists themselves did not
know that the hospital was to be their target. They decided it on a
whim.
The intelligence community should have been able to anticipate the next
possible moves of the God's Army as it has been cornered in the
battlefield by Burmese troops. But the military, police and civilian
operatives have let the country down. In reports that are churned out
daily, intelligence officials are only able to tell policy makers the
latest casualty figures and the tenseness of the situation at the
border.
They have neglected to penetrate the rebel group in order to be able to
assess the true situation and the implications for Thailand. They appear
not to have made even a slight attempt to improve their intelligence on
the God's Army group, even after the Burmese embassy siege. The National
Intelligence Agency, the Armed Forces Security Centre, various other
military field intelligence units and the Interior Ministry's
intelligence division seem to be in a ''business as usual'' mode.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai has repeatedly talked about prosecuting the
God's Army terrorists but he has only delivered empty words because his
intelligence units did not care to monitor and track down these
terrorists.
The Ratchaburi Hospital incident should not have to serve as a wake-up
call for the country's security system. When things go wrong, it is easy
to blame the system. The system can only work if the people manning it
perform their jobs.
Political Desk
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE NATION: BORDER PROBLEMS LIKELY TO CONTINUE
Editorial
JANUARY 26, 2000
The hostage drama in Ratchaburi ended within 24 hours with all the
Burmese rebels killed.
The manner in which they died will certainly be the subject of
discussion and further dispute for some time to come -- the harsh
measures used to resolve the crisis were rather unusual in the Thai
context. It was unfortunate, but the stakes were high for all involved,
especially the government, the army and concerned parties.
At the height of the crisis, the Thai press and public, including
politicians, criticised the government's apparent soft approach as it
appeared to be similar to the handling of the Burmese Embassy siege. As
it turned out, the government did the opposite. It deserves applause.
When the Burmese students in exile occupied the embassy last October,
they succeeded in raising the profile of their struggle against Burma's
growing political oppression. However, when the God's Army rebels burst
into the central Ratchaburi Hospital, it was out of sheer desperation to
help themselves. They said their compatriots in the jungle were being
bombarded by Burmese and Thai mortar shells. They wanted to tell the
world of their suffering. However, once inside the hospital, their fate
was sealed. There was public outrage from the relatives of hostages even
though the gunmen had no intention of harming anyone.
Interviews with witnesses and hostages indicate growing uneasiness
towards the Karen ethnic group, which has been living along the
Thai-Burmese border. This is a dangerous trend which, if we are not
careful, could lead to a widespread crackdown on the pro-democracy
elements inside Thailand -- something the Rangoon regime has always
wanted the Thais to do. At this point, though, we must not give in to
temptation to treat all things in the same light.
It would surprise nobody if the Burmese students, who still entertain
hopes of returning to their motherland, are targeted in the near future.
The two terrorist incidents within four months have greatly embarrassed
the Thai government and the Thai army. Indeed, the hostage crisis has
already strengthened the hand of those conservatives who believe that
quick action against Karen refugees and students is necessary. But
Thailand has an international commitment to treat the refugees and Karen
minorities in a humane way. It is important that the Thai government
continues to give an assurance that unarmed civilians and the Karens
along Thai-Burmese will not be pushed back.
In the short run, Thai-Burmese relations will improve. At the very
least, Thailand has demonstrated to Burma its seriousness in dealing
with terrorism not only in words but in action -- that the country is
capable of responding to a siege. However, in the long run, relations
will be put to the test as the two countries are fundamentally
different. As long as the oppressive nature of the regime there
continues, the refugees and the fighting will continue. Thailand will
still be on the receiving end.
The Ratchaburi incident will also serve as a catalyst to review the
efficiency of Thai intelligence and security networks. Several Thai
leaders, including Prime Minister Chuan, have indicated there are
loopholes in the current system of information gathering and border
control -- Chuan, in fact, has had to take most of the flak for the
failure by intelligence officials to find Sok Yoeun, the Cambodian
suspect wanted by Phnom Penh.
The government has proved its critics wrong this time. But although the
hostage drama has ended, the problems will not go away. In fact, with
the remaining elements of God's Army and festering problems along the
borders, they can always return and create havoc at anytime, unless the
Thai government and army react swiftly and change the guard at the
border and toughen up surveillance.
The Nation (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANKGOK POST: OUR FORCES DID WELL WHAT THEY HAD TO DO
Jan. 26
Editorial
The swift end to the hostage drama at Ratchaburi general hospital in the
pre-dawn hours yesterday was greeted with great relief and jubilation by
most Thais who had watched their televisions in horror as terrified
medical staff and patients were held captive for almost 24 hours by 10
gun-toting God's Army rebels. There was none of the sympathy shown the
hostage-takers who seized the Burmese embassy last October.
The general consensus was that the government had made the right
decision to storm the hospital and bring the crisis to an end-amazingly
without even one of the hundreds of hostages held captive being killed
or harmed (although one 78-year-old woman died of a heart attack at some
stage). It could be luck that all the hostages escaped unharmed. But
without meticulous planning and superb execution by the elite police and
army commando units, the rescue could never have succeeded. Hostages
might have been killed or injured. Everyone involved with handling the
hospital siege deserves the highest praise for a job very well done.
It could be argued that the bloodshed was all unnecessary, it could have
been avoided. But the God's Army rebels gave our government little
choice. Many lives would have been in desperate danger without the
necessary treatment had the siege gone on for a day or two more. The
rebels' refusal to surrender, to lay down their arms and to face trial
in the Thai courts on terrorism charges added weight to the government's
decision to resort to force to end the drama.
Like all other anti-Rangoon minority groups waging wars of independence
against the brutal military junta in Burma, God's Army is fighting for a
just cause. But caught between the Thai and Burmese armies, God's Army
has grown desperate-and its decision to seize the Ratchaburi regional
hospital for whatever cause, legitimate or not, was not only foolhardy
and suicidal but quite simply unacceptable and despicable.
Now that a no-nonsense message has been sent God's Army and any other
rebel group which might consider operations of a similar nature, it is
high time that our authorities carried out a serious review of our
national security to avoid anything else along the lines of the hospital
and Burmese embassy sieges. It is also time Thailand addressed the
problem of Burmese refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees and Rangoon to work out a durable solution.
Thailand now shelters more than 100,000 Karen refugees, mostly in the
border areas of Tak and Mae Hong Son. There also are several thousand
former Burmese students housed at a camp in Ratchaburi and throughout
Bangkok under arrangements with the UNHCR. And there are also the tens
of thousands illegal migrants from Burma working illegally here.
It is not unfair to say Rangoon is to blame for the Karen and other
minority groups fleeing across the border into Thailand. It has carried
out a brutal and oppressive campaign to subdue democratic aspiration and
self-rule. Without Rangoon's active participation, a lasting solution to
the refugee problem has absolutely no hope of success.
In the wake of this latest siege, any potential trouble-making elements
among the refugees must now be restrained and their movements and
activities restricted. But a concentration on humanity, the centre-piece
of Thailand's handling of refugees from Burma and elsewhere, also must
be maintained. After all, most refugees are innocents who want no more
than to have a safe place to live and a roof over their heads.
And let us also not forget that the real threat to Thailand is not God's
Army or any other Karen group, but the Wa and Kokang ethnic groups of
Burma who are flooding this country with their deadly production and
trafficking of methamphetamines.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: LETTER-- MINORITIES ARE UNDER PRESSURE
Jan. 26
Letters to the Editor
E-mail:postbag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In recent weeks, the Burmese army has been conducting its dry season
offensive against God's Army, which is made up of 100 guerrillas. There
also have been unconfirmed reports of Thai army shelling of these
rebels, after the army lost four soldiers in a landmine explosion within
Burmese territory.
Whether the Burmese army has any taste for military victory over God's
Army is something to ponder. But any suggestion during the hospital
siege of terrorist activity could be considered far-fetched.
For outsiders, the overall political picture along the Thai/Burmese
border suddenly has become confusing since November. There are
unconfirmed reports of the Thai military pushing refugees (recent
arrivals) back across the Burmese border. The UNHCR has been asked by
the Thai National Security Council to step up efforts to stem the tide
of Burmese refugees into Thailand.
Recent reports by the Bangkok Post regarding the repatriation of
refugees to Burma are also not helping to alleviate our confusion. An
information blackout on the Internet has also been detected.
One notable thing about the Burmese minorities' political movement is
its precarious existence among powerful international political forces.
The ethnic rebel fighters, especially, have to rely on the understanding
of neighbouring governments/armies. In politics, this support is fragile
and any slight mistake could cause a lot of damage.
Although the political consequences of God's Army's hospital siege may
be undesirable, it would be quite unfair to blame God's Army for taking
such drastic action. Only those on the ground would know the kind of
pressure put on them by the Burmese and Thai armies.
With the passing last month of U Tin Maung Win, who was the vice-chair
of the Democratic Alliance of Burma, various contacts and leadership
went with him. A vacuum exists as regards ethnic federal movement.
I can foresee tougher times ahead for all Burmese pro-democracy groups
in Thailand. A lot more refined political judgment will be needed by our
refugees and pro-democracy leaders to keep our ethnic federal movement
alive.
U Ne Oo
Bangkok Post (January 26, 2000)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
CSB: THE TRUTH-- GOD ARMY AND THE THAI GENERAL MONGKHOL
By Htun Aung Gyaw, Civil Society in Burma
<hag2@xxxxxxxxxxx
Posted to BurmaNet2-l, Jan. 25, 2000
The act of Thai Supreme Commander Gen Mongkhol reflects the Thai's
army attitude towards Burmese rebels Especially "The God Army" lead by
twin young teen age Karen boys whose village was going to be torn apart
by the Burmese army because they are ethnic Karens. The twins decided
to defend their village and their people. It is a story of courageous
twelve-year-old twins brothers who took the responsibility to defend
their village from being slaughtered by the Burmese army. They
successfully stopped the Burmese advances. They became legendary heroes
for the Karen people as well as the pro democracy fighters. The Burmese
army marked them as rebels for defending their village. If the Burmese
army caught them what would happen? The answer is clear: they would be
tortured and killed or put in prison for many years even though they are
now only thirteen. There would be a military tribunal without lawyers
for them.
The question here is why General Mongkhol is bombarding Burmese soil
where "the God Army" set up their headquarters to fight against the
Burmese regime. The answer is crystal clear. The Burmese generals has
been pressuring the Thai government to capture five activist students
known as "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors", who seized the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok a few months ago. If the Thais want fishing and
logging concessions from Burma, they have to capture those five
fugitives. The aim of the Thai and Burmese army is the same: to capture
five fugitives who are taking shelter in the "God Army" territory. The
Burmese army is approaching from the rear and the Thai Army is pounding
with cannons from the Thai side, cornering the God Army from both sides
systemically. This is the first visible action, demonstrating that the
Thai army is working closely together with the Burmese army which is
notorious for slaughtering their own ethnic people such as Karen, Mon,
Shan, Karenni, Chin, Kachin, Lahu, Aka, Arakanese, and Rohingha.
The aim of the Thai army is to capture five fugitives not the God Army
to please the Burmese generals. for their economic interest. First, I
see General Mongkhol is not different from corrupt General Chavalit. He
might have some personal interest to do business with Burmese generals.
Second, the Thai has less experience in combat fighting but the Burmese
has a lot of experience. Even though Thai army is well equipped with
modern weapons, they have been enjoying peace in their country for more
than 20 years. On the other hand, the Burmese has been fighting against
rebels for more than 50 years. The Thai generals have no confidence in
their own army to fight against the Burmese army. As a result, Thai
generals cooperate with the Burmese army rather than against them.
In Short, the bombardment of the Burmese soil by the Thai army is not
acceptable. In addition, trying to eliminate the rebels who are
fighting for human rights and democracy is not morally correct. Who
really knows if the land mine that was the cause of the death of the
four Thai soldiers was planted by the God Army? No one!. The Burmese
army has planted many land mines. Burmese troops and their ally
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) invaded Thai territory for more
than thirty times within three years, burning Thai and Karen refugees
camps along the border; killing Thai citizens and Karen refugees who
lived in Thai soil.
Even though Thai soil was under attack, Gen Mongkhol and his fellow
generals did not defend their land very well. Why did the Thai army
fail to defend its own people and refugees who took shelter in Thai
soil? Because they are not interested in fighting against Burmese, they
prefer making money instead. Even though they are soldiers whose duty is
to defend their country from foreign intruders, they failed to do so.
Now suddenly, Gen Mongkhol is using "The God Army" as a reason to bomb
Burmese territory. I thought that the Thai people wanted to see their
army avoid dirty politics and self-interest. They want their army to
protect them and to help people in need, not to bully them by pleasing
Burmese generals. The recent hospital seized in Thailand by the God
army highlight the out come of narrow minded operation conducted by the
Thai army which cornering the God Army to surrender to the Burmese.
When they have no way out the God Army fight back. General Mongkhol is
the most responsible person for this incident because he is the one who
bombed the God Army. Beating a weak person and pleasing a strong one is
easy to do. Defending the weak against the bully is a tough thing to
do, but it
is a moral thing to do.
Htun Aung Gyaw
Civil Society for Burma
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