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Armed group storms Myanmar embassy



Reply-To: "koko" <koko@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Armed group storms Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, demands talks

Thailand-Myanmar-attack,sched-7thlead
   Armed group storms Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, demands talks
   by Dan Eaton
   = + =
   ATTENTION -///

   BANGKOK, Oct 1 (AFP) - A group of 12 armed men stormed the Myanmar
embassy
here Friday, taking at least 30 people, including a number of foreigners,
hostage and demanding the country's military rulers open talks with Aung San
Suu Kyi's opposition.
   In a dramatic escalation of Myanmar's decade-old political tensions,
police
said the men, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, attacked the
high-walled embassy just before midday (0500 GMT).
   Shots rang out inside the building but all the hostages were believed to
be
safe and negotiators were talking to the group, which identified itself as
the
"Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors", police said.
   Dozens of police wearing flack jackets cordoned off Sathorn Road
surrounding the embassy in Bangkok's diplomatic sector, and sniffer dogs
were
searching the area, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
   Snipers took up positions on surrounding rooftops.
   Thai officials named 13 diplomats believed to be inside the embassy but
said Ambassador Hla Muang and six other envoys were not there when it was
stormed.
   Three hostages were released during the afternoon, a Thai security guard,
an elderly gardener and a police guard. Witnesses said they looked shaken
but
unhurt as they walked free.
   In a statement obtained by AFP the group called for the Myanmar junta to
begin talks with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and
release all political prisoners.
   Faxed from inside the embassy, the statement said the hostages were
unharmed but the attackers were willing to "die in action" unless their
demands were met.
   "Eleven years after (the) nationwide democracy uprising Burma remains
under
the oppressive military regime and the people are denied democracy and human
rights," the statement said, using the former name for Myanmar.
   Hostages inside the embassy told friends by telephone they feared for
their
safety.
   "One man with a gun is below our flat and I am stuck inside," a friend
quoted the wife of a diplomat as saying.
   "I am worried about my husband, I heard some shots before, but I only
know
what I can see on television," she said.
   The junta in Yangon is condemned internationally for alleged widespread
human rights abuses including the systematic rape and torture of ethnic
minorities, the use of slave labour and political imprisonment.
   It is also vilified for ignoring the results of a 1990 election won in a
landslide by the NLD under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
   Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekapi said the group had demanded to see an
exiled student leader being held at the interior ministry's detention
centre.
   Two student leaders were later brought from detention to talk through a
loudspeaker to those inside the compound but were quickly removed to safety
after three more shots rang out from the compound.
   The attackers tore down the Myanmar flag, replacing it with the red and
gold fighting peacock banner of the student pro-democracy movement.
   A spokesman for Myanmar's military government said the ambassador was
working to secure the release of the hostages.
   "He is working together with the Thai authorities," he said in a
statement
received here.
   A number of exiled Myanmar activist groups use Thailand as the base for
their efforts to topple the Yangon junta, calling for democracy and the
convening of the parliament elected in 1990.
   A spokesman for the Thailand-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front,
a
group which renounced armed struggle against the junta several years ago,
denied involvement in the embassy storming.
   "The ABSDF is not involved in violence, and we call on all sides to
resolve
this in a peaceful way," spokesman Naing Aung told AFP.
   Aung San Suu Kyi has consistently refused to support calls for violent
protest, determined to avoid a repeat of the junta's bloody crushing of a
student uprising in 1988.
   The attack came during a brief stopover in Thailand by US Secretary of
Defense William Cohen, who voiced Washington's support for Aung San Suu Kyi
but opposed the use of violence.
   "The United States has indicated that we have been supportive of her
efforts to bring about change in Burma (Myanmar)," he said.
   "But we are not certainly in a position to try to dictate to Burma
itself,"
he said.
   bur/de/smc/jd