AFP-Heroic students face Thai crack

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Subject: AFP-Heroic students face Thai crackdown as hostage crisis mystery deepens

Exiled students face Thai crackdown as hostage crisis mystery deepens
BANGKOK, Oct 5 (AFP) - Thailand ordered a crackdown on exiled students
Tuesday, amid swirling rumours about multi-million dollar payoffs and claims
foreigners masterminded the hostage crisis at Myanmar's embassy here.
Interior Minister Sanan Kachonprasart said he had received information that
two of the five gunmen who stormed the Myanmar embassy here Friday had been
living at a Thai holding centre for exiled Myanmar students.

The gunmen who held almost 40 people hostage for 25 hours, said they were
pro-democracy students exiled from their homes in Myanmar.

Sanan said authorities would strictly enforce regulations confining the
exiled students to the Maneeloy holding centre near the Thai-Myanmar border.

"Foreign visitors will be confined to designated areas and students will not
be allowed to roam free anymore," he said.

He warned if students left the center they would be repatriated to Myanmar,
where they would be unlikely to receive a warm welcome from the country's
military rulers.

Sanan said police had still not identified any of the gunmen.

However NGOs said the leader of the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors" was
San Naing, with a long record of terrorist activities carried out in the
name of democracy.

An estimated 2,000 exiled students are based in Thailand, along with
pro-democracy groups campaigning for an end to long-running military rule in
Myanmar.

Rumours about the gunmen began circulating in Myanmar and Thailand, not long
after the five radical students disappeared into jungle near the
Thai-Myanmar border after a helicopter flight from Bangkok Saturday.

Sanan dismissed allegations by opposition politicians Thai authorities had
paid one million dollars to the hostage takers in order to end the crisis
quickly.

"We did not give the gunmen any money," he said.

"We gave them only a bag and a telephone, there was no money, arms, or
anything else inside the bag ... it was just clothes for one of them."

But he conceeded Thailand needed to improve its intelligence network, which
has been criticised for failing to detect the gunmen's plans in advance.

"We have to improve our intelligence system in every way because in the past
we have only had to deal with problems theoretically and we had no actual
experience," he said.

Meanwhile, Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said he was unaware of
claims by Myanmar some of the Western hostages had colluded with the
hostage-takers.

"I have no knowledge of this ... it is a matter for the police," Surin said.

But editorials in official Myanmar media continued to attack the Western
hostages and "foreign pay-masters" who allegedly masterminded the hostage
crisis.

"The drama was fishy to say the least and stank of conspiracy," the New
Light of Myanmar said Tuesday.

Myanmar said Monday that foreign diplomats in Bangkok held several meetings
with anti-junta groups based in Thailand and hinted they may have played a
role in the crisis.

The five gunmen demanded 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.

Editorials Tuesday also criticised the gunmen's Western hostages for "taking
a free ride in the conspiracy."

As the gunmen made their dramatic helicopter escape to the border, freed
Western hostages waved red pro-democracy banners and shouted slogans.

The junta claimed some of the Western hostages were part of an elaborate
"stage act" and were involved in planning the crisis.