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The Nation - Full alert at border a



Subject: The Nation - Full alert at border as troops mass

THE NATION - October 10, 1999

Headlines

Full alert at border as troops mass

FOLLOWING the recent hostage drama at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, the
chief of the district where the holding centre for Burmese dissidents is
located imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on a border village following a report
that about 700 Burmese soldiers had concentrated close to the Thai border.

Somdee Kachayangyuen, district chief of Suan Phung in Ratchaburi province,
said the authorities had announced a daily curfew from 6 pm to 6 am in
Banthamhin village to protect over 300 families residing there. It happened
after it had been reported that Burmese troops were approaching the holding
centre in the Banthamhin area in Suan Phung, which houses about 8,000
Burmese refugees.

He said an intelligence unit anticipated that the junta's military could
soon start combat operations against the troops of the separatist Karen
National Union (KNU), which the Burmese authorities suspected of sheltering
the freed hostage-takers.

Tensions along the Thai-Burmese border have risen since five armed Burmese
dissidents raided the Burmese Embassy and took 89 hostages to air their
political agenda two weeks ago. The occupation ended with the Thai
government giving the captors safe passage and providing them with a
helicopter.

''We have heard from our intelligence unit that the Burmese troops have been
approaching the Mae Pia Lek checkpoint, which is a stronghold of the KNU,''
Somdee said.

A Karen National Union officer, who asked not to be named, said yesterday
that about 700 Burmese soldiers had been concentrated in an area over the
border from Suan Phung district where the five armed Burmese students who
stormed the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok are reportedly taking refuge.

According to the officer, a KNU unit near the Thai-Burmese border had
intercepted a Burmese army radio message about the move.

>From the message it was known that Burmese government troops were heading
towards Kamaplaw, an area close to where the five gunmen had reportedly
taken refuge, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the officer, another unit is believed to be heading towards the
KNU's 4th Brigade area, over the border from Kanchanaburi.

A Thai official source revealed that Infantry Division 9 had been put on
full alert after reports that more than 500 junta soldiers had been deployed
in the area over from Kanchanaburi.

There are no reports of fighting yet, he said.

Somdee said that Thai officials had relocated people living in the area to a
safe place and that the authorities would thoroughly check people crossing
the border to make sure that they were not carrying weapons.

Somdee said he had also instructed the official in charge of Banthamhin
Holding Centre to closely monitor the activities of the Burmese refugees
there.

 .....................

Burma urges Thais to root out terrorism

BURMA yesterday called on Thailand to use an ''iron first'' to wipe out
terrorism following last week's dramatic hostage crisis at Rangoon's embassy
in Bangkok.

The junta accused Bangkok of setting a dangerous precedent by supplying the
five gunmen with an escape helicopter after they held 40 people hostage in a
dramatic 25-hour occupation.

''The kid-glove treatment of the terrorists by the authorities concerned
raises a lot of questions,'' said a copy of a statement by Burma's
Washington embassy.

''The international community needs to discard the kid glove in favour of
the iron fist,'' it said.

Bangkok and Rangoon have been engaged in an escalating war of words over the
crisis, with senior Thai ministers arguing the hostage-taking reinforced the
need for democratic change inside military-ruled Burma.

But Rangoon has angrily denied responsibility, with official media
criticising Thailand's democratic credentials.

''The act of permitting prostitution is adequate as a manifestation of a
free democratic state in Thailand,'' said a commentator in the New Light of
Myanmar on Friday.

Burmese authorities closed the checkpoints along the Thai-Burmese border and
their waters to Thai fishing boats in the wake of the embassy occupation.

Some see the closures as retaliation against the Thai government's handling
of the crisis. Thammarong Prakobboon, director-general of the Fisheries
Department, claimed the damage from the suspension of Thai fishing boats'
rights to fish in Burmese waters had reached Bt1 billion.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said he thought that the closure would be
temporary. He also defended Thailand's decision to allow safe exit to the
captors by saying: ''We were forced to do so, otherwise our people and
Burmese people might have been put in danger. I believe the Burmese
authorities will understand that.''

Chuan also noted: ''We cannot expect gthe Burmese authorities to react to
incidents in the same way as the Thai authorities. We have different
systems. Thailand's is democracy.''

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan calmed matters by saying that the Burmese
ambassador had assured him that the border closures would be temporary.

Suchat Triratwattana, an executive member of Tak Provincial Chamber of
Commerce, said that the province had lost Bt100 million by the closure of
the checkpoints. ''If the ban goes on, economic activity in the area will
suffer.''

After the storming of the embassy, Thailand said it would increase security
at diplomatic missions and repatriate the estimated 2,000 exiled Burmese
students in Thailand.

Deputy Foreign Minister M R Sukhumbhand Paribatra said that emigration by
Burmese refugees to third countries should be on a voluntary basis.

The Nation, Agence France-Presse

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