AFP : Western hostages accused of c

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Subject: AFP : Western hostages accused of conniving with gunmen

  Western hostages accused of conniving with embassy gunmen

    YANGON, Oct 4 (AFP) - Westerners taken hostage by anti-junta gunmen who 
stormed the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok last week met and "connived" with 
their captors beforehand, Myanmar's state-run press said Monday.   The 
official media also said the armed group of five, who fled to the 
Thai-Myanmar border in a helicopter after releasing their captives, had 
stolen cash and documents from the embassy offices.
    "It is learned that the terrorists had connived beforehand with some of 
the foreigners who had come for visas on that day," an official report in 
the Burmese language Mirror daily said.
    The newspaper did not elaborate on how it claimed the Westerners might 
have assisted the gunmen.  A number of foreigners were amongst the hostages 
taken by the armed men who took over the embassy in central Bangkok on 
Friday.  The kidnappers demanded that the military junta in Yangon open 
talks with the democratic opposition led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San 
Suu Kyi. The junta repeatedly accuses Aung San Suu Kyi, who denied 
involvement in the embassy storming and decried the use of violence, of 
having foreign backers. As the five gunmen climbed into an escape 
helicopter provided by the Thai authorities Saturday to take them to the 
border, freed Western hostages waved red pro-democracy banners and shouted 
slogans. Photos of at least seven Western men and women wearing red 
headbands and holding a rebel flag were splashed across the front pages of 
newspapers around the region the next day. The junta have labelled the 
hostage-takers as terrorists, saying that action must be taken against them.
    "Although the incident is over, it is also very important to make these 
criminals realise that no matter under what pretext or disguise it might 
have been staged, the peace-loving people of the world community will not 
tolerate the criminal and terrorist activities they have committed," a 
statement Saturday said.
    Since then no further official statements have been issued.  The junta 
has meanwhile beefed up security around foreign embassies in the
capital Yangon. Witnesses and officials said extra police guards had been 
posted near embassy compounds.  Officials said the Thai-Myanmar border 
remained closed Monday, with little sign of unusual activity, despite Thai 
media reports of increased Myanmar troop concentrations.
    "There is no report of any tension along the border" a Thai border 
official told AFP.

Thin Myat Thu (Thida)                                  Tel: + 47 22 414143
Web Editor                                                Fax: + 47 22 413929
Democratic Voice of Burma      http://www.communique.no/dvb