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Confusion shrouds raiders' identiti

Subject: Confusion shrouds raiders' identities

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<font size=5>Confusion shrouds raiders' identities<br>
</font><font size=3>PM told both 1989 hijackers were involved<br>
<br>
Thailand was still struggling yesterday to identify the five
heavily-armed Burmese militants who attacked Burma's embassy and took 89
hostages on Friday, with intelligence and security agencies giving
conflicting reports on who they were. <br>
Police said they will be issuing warrants soon for their arrest on
charges including violent detention, possession of unregistered weapons,
discharging firearms and armed robbery. <br>
But at the same time, police admitted they are struggling to identify the
gunmen who were flown by helicopter to safety by the Thai government in
return for the release of all hostages. <br>
Various government and armed forces agencies yesterday came up with a
list of names of the gunmen, but were still carrying out checks to
establish their identities. <br>
According to one intelligence agency's list submitted to Prime Minister
Chuan Leekpai, the armed group which called itself the Vigorous Burmese
Student Warriors included Gyaw Ni or ''Johnny'' and Ye Thi Ha or
''Preeda'', the two radical Burmese students who hijacked a domestic
flight in Burma and forced it to fly to Thailand in October 1989. <br>
The three others were ethnic Karen, named Kyi Kyi, Pye Kha and Saw Bai.
<br>
Gyaw Ni, 30, and Ye Thi Ha were housed at the Maneeloy holding centre for
Burmese asylum-seekers in western Ratchaburi province after their release
from jail for the hijacking in August 1992. <br>
After leaving the holding centre, they earned a living singing at various
cafes in Bangkok. They used their guitar cases to smuggle their AK-47
weapons in the embassy on Friday. The police yesterday were still
questioning Thai and foreign hostages for clues to the identification and
the arrest of their captors. <br>
A group of seven Asian and Western hostages at the same time were cleared
of suspicion that they were ''collaborators'' of the gunmen, after the
junta in Rangoon claimed some of the foreign hostages of collaboration.
<br>
The seven were seen waving and shouting support as the armed group was
about to be flown by helicopter from the Armed Forces Academy's
Preparatory School in Bangkok to the Thai-Burmese border in Ratchaburi.
<br>
''Investigations revealed that some foreigners who were present at the
visa section when the armed terrorists seized the embassy, were there in
guise of visa applicants, with the prior arrangements with the
terrorists,'' said an official statement published in Burma's
state-controlled newspapers. It did not specify which foreigners. <br>
No independent evidence has emerged to support the Burmese government's
assertion. <br>
Thai authorities are still trying to where the gunmen went after being
dropped off near Kamaplaw in Burma, which is opposite Ratchaburi's Suan
Phung district. Two small armed groups -- the God Army and the Karen
National Union Youth Group -- are active in the area. <br>
Intelligence officers were still trying to determine whether the two
groups were connected to the rai on the embassy or the gunmen. <br>
A report given to Chuan from an emergency meeting of the National
Security Council yesterday said there were initially six militants, but
one, Aung Aung, had changed his mind before the raid. <br>
He was arrested in front of the embassy and the police found a shoulder
bag and a handbag containing press statements from the group. <br>
The police also found a large number of red head bands. <br>
The security council meeting was attended by senior representatives of
various civil and military agencies and intelligence units, and the
16-member team which had been negotiating with the assailants. <br>
Among the negotiating team were Chaiyapreuk, an NSC analyst Ekaphong
Rimcharoen, and Monreudee Ketuphant, an airport authority official who is
a close friend of both Gyaw Ni and Ye Thi Ha. <br>
The team described the atmosphere of the negotiations as ''friendly'' but
that Gyaw Ni had turned ''very upset and aggressive'' after talking to
foreign and Thai journalists via embassy phones. He also cursed Aung Aung
for being a ''coward''. <br>
The team noted that the hostage-takers, who declared their readiness ''to
die in action'', had never raised their original demands that the Burmese
junta release all political prisoners, hold talks with pro-democracy
politicians and convene the elected Burmese parliament. Instead, they
only asked for a helicopter flight and food. <br>
Armed with AK-47, M-16 assault rifles and hand grenades, the attackers
wanted to seize the Burmese Ambassador U Hla Maung, but he was not in the
embassy at the time, negotiators said. <br>
The group's invasion of the embassy at 11.45 am on Friday in broad
daylight and in the downtown area of Bangkok shocked the Thai government.
<br>
The government believed the group had plan the embassy siege for some
time and in collaboration with either Burmese or foreign political and
financial backers. It was also trying to establish how the group came
into possession of their assault weapons. <br>
Chuan will call a meeting tomorrow to review national security strategy
and the country's anti-terrorism measures. <br>
Although major exiled Burmese student groups have issued statements
condemning the siege, Thai authorities plan to launch a broad crackdown
on exiled Burmese dissidents' anti-government activities. <br>
The junta's statement yesterday also hinted that foreign diplomats in
Thailand may also have played a role in supporting the hostage seizure.
<br>
It said ''senior foreign diplomats'' had met a number of anti-government
groups in Bangkok and at the Maneeloy centre. <br>
''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 the Westerners assisted the gunmen. <br>
It also said the five attackers had stolen cash and documents from the
embassy offices. <br>
The junta on Monday reserved special venom for Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart's comments that the attackers were ''student activists''.
<br>
''One wonders at any point during the entire siege of the embassy, if the
trigger-happy gunmen's . . . activity resulted in death of not only the
embassy staff but families including children, can they still be regarded
as 'not terrorists, but students who are fighting for democracy', '' the
statement said. <br>
''It is still of grave concern to the diplomatic community around the
world to realise that armed terrorism, if carried out under the pretext
of a certain disguise is acceptable . . . There will be no effective way
of preventing terrorist activities being repeated and spawned.'' <br>
The junta, meanwhile, beefed up security around foreign embassies in
Rangoon. <br>
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