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2,000 dissidents bear the brunt



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<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>2,000 dissidents bear the
brunt<br>
</font><font size=5><i>Under tighter control after hostage crisis <br>
<br>
</font></i><font size=5>M</font></b><font size=3>ore than 2,000 Burmese
students residing in Bangkok under the care of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees will be kept under stricter control by Thai
authorities following the Burmese embassy siege.<br>
Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart
announced that he had instructed the officials to apply tougher security
measures because Burmese refugees have the potential to spark unrest at
any time.<br>
Those categorised as &quot;students&quot; will be separated from all
others and sent to universities under UNHCR programmes, he said.<br>
The directive will also apply to 816 others housed at Maneeloy refugee
centre in Ratchaburi, which allegedly has clandestinely served as a
military training camp for pro-democracy Burmese students.<br>
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai admitted that intelligence and security
measures of the government had been &quot;loose&quot;.<br>
But the administration maintained that the five Burmese men who raided
the embassy were &quot;not terrorists but merely radical students in
pursuit of democracy&quot;.<br>
Maj-Gen Sanan reiterated his claim that the men, armed with machine guns
and grenades, should not be called terrorists because they had not
manifested any conspiracy.<br>
The Burmese had only acted in the interests of democratic rule in Burma
and did not mean to harm any of the hostages during the siege, he
said.<br>
It ended without bloodshed because Thai authorities had applied a soft,
peaceful approach to the situation, keeping in mind that they were just
&quot;freedom fighters&quot;, Maj-Gen Sanan said.<br>
&quot;They only asked for a helicopter to take them over to the border.
They only wanted the world to know that Burma still has no democracy. For
that reason, the negotiations went on smoothly and the situation unfolded
peacefully,&quot; he said.<br>
&quot;That's why I choose to call them radical students in pursuit of
democracy and not terrorists,&quot; he added.<br>
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