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Bkk Post -Sanan comes under heavy f



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Bkk Post -Sanan comes under heavy fire from Rangoon junta

Bangkok Post - Oct 5, 1999.
Sanan comes under heavy fire from Rangoon junta
Accused of leniency with the 'terrorists'

Temsak Traisophon

The Burmese junta yesterday bitterly attacked Interior Minister Sanan
Kachornprasart for having offered the five Burmese hostage-takers a safe
passage to the Thai-Burmese border.

"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'," said a
statement issued in Rangoon.

"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."

Earlier, the interior minister said relations between Bangkok and Rangoon
would not be harmed by different viewpoints over Friday's Burmese embassy
siege in which dozens of people were taken hostage by five heavily-armed
Burmese dissident students.

Maj-Gen Sanan said he believed the fact Rangoon had dubbed the five
dissident students "terrorists" while Bangkok had merely considered them
"aggressive students" would not affect their neighbourly ties.

Maj-Gen Sanan was unaware of yesterday's attack by the junta. But he said
authorities had carefully checked before coming to the conclusion that the
five were not terrorists. He called them students who were demanding
democracy in Burma.

The minister insisted that Burmese authorities had raised no objections
against Thai rescue operations and given Thai officials a free hand to find
a peaceful solution to the crisis.

According to him, Thai authorities were in touch at all hours through a hot
line with Burma's deputy foreign minister and national police chief for
consultations until the end of the hostage drama.

Human rights and democracy groups have praised the Thai government for
seeking a peaceful solution to the Burmese embassy siege in which all
hostages were rescued unhurt.

The groups included the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the
Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, the Coordinating Committee of
Thai NGOs on Human Rights, the Union for Civil Liberty, the Student
Confederation of Thailand and the so-called Borderless Friends.

In the statement, the groups expressed appreciation to the prime minister,
the interior minister, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Royal Thai Police
Office, and others involved.

They also lauded Deputy Foreign Minister M.R.Sukhumbhand Paribatra and
Chaipruek Sawaengcharoen, a Corrections Department official, for risking
their lives by taking a helicopter ride with the five Burmese in place of
the hostages.