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Saturday, October 2, 1999 Published at 08:34 GMT 09:34 UK 


World: Asia-Pacific

Burmese embassy siege ends 



A group of armed attackers who held a number of people hostage at the Burmese 
embassy in Bangkok have been flown out after a twenty-four hour siege. 

The Thai deputy foreign minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra went with the group in 
place of the hostages, who were all set free. 

The minister himself was released, unharmed, when the helicopters carrying 
the hostage-takers reached the Burmese border. 

During the siege, the armed group involved -- described as dissident Burmese 
students -- demanded the release of all political prisoners in Burma and the 
setting up of a dialogue between the military government and pro-democracy 
campaigners. The Burmese embassy has regularly been the target of protests 
supporting political change in Burma, where democratic forces won a 1990 
election but have never been allowed to take power. 

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service