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voa on the crisis
DATE=10/1/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=THAILAND - BURMA EMBASSY UPDATE L-O
NUMBER=2-254555
BYLINE=RON CORBEN
DATELINE=BANGKOK
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// UPDATES CR 2-254547 NEW THRUOUT ///
INTRO: A dozen armed attackers, calling themselves
the Victorious Burmese Student Warriors, remain inside
Burma's Embassy in Bangkok nine hours after storming
the complex late Friday morning. They continue to hold
diplomats and their families hostage. Ron Corben
reports from Bangkok the hostages also include several
foreigners who were at the Embassy's passport and visa
section at the time of the raid.
TEXT: Negotiations are proceeding slowly after the
daring daylight attack when the gunmen stormed the
Embassy compound around noon local time. In a faxed
statement sent to a local Thai television station, the
group is demanding Burma's military government free
all political prisoners. The statement said none of
the hostages had been harmed.
Senior police commanders at the hostage scene
confirmed more than 20 foreigners, including Thai
nationals, are being held inside the Embassy along
with the Burmese diplomats and their families.
/// OPT /// The foreigners include three French
nationals, two Malays, and one each from Japan,
Canada, and Singapore. /// END OPT /// Burma's
Ambassador to Thailand, initially was believed to have
been inside the Embassy. But a military government
spokesman in Rangoon says the senior diplomat was not
present at the time of the attack.
Police say the raid occurred just before noon local
time, and more than half a dozen shots rang out from
within the walled compound, located in Bangkok's
financial and diplomatic district.
Some 200 Thai police and security forces, some wearing
bullet-proof vests, surrounded the compound in
Bangkok's financial and diplomatic district.
/// OPT ///It is an older style timber structure, with
the more modern residential apartments at the back of
the Embassy. More recently built office towers and
apartments overlook the Embassy and its garden, from
which Thai special branch and security officials had
earlier taken up position. But as day turned to night
floodlights were brought in to illuminate the garden
area. /// END OPT ///
Soon after the group took over the premises, the
Burmese national flag was lowered and replaced with
one emblazoned with a red fighting peacock --
considered a symbol of the anti-military movement in
Burma.
Police say the hostage takers were carrying automatic
rifles and some 20 grenades when the attack began.
A key student group in Thailand, the All Burma
Students Democratic Front or A-B-S-D-F, has anxiously
denied any involvement in the siege.
Observers at the scene said the group, including men
and women, had come from a special student refugee
camp at Ratchburi, outside Bangkok, and from Mae Sot,
a Thai border town and home for many Burmese refugees.
The incident is a violent departure from normally
peaceful demonstrations by pro-democracy activists
outside the Embassy that call for change in Burma.
(Signed)
NEB/RC/JO
01-Oct-1999 10:44 AM EDT (01-Oct-1999 1444 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.