Reuters-Afraid Myanmar junta may sh

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Subject: Reuters-Afraid Myanmar junta may shift part of embassy after siege 

Myanmar may shift part of embassy after siege
05:19 a.m. Oct 26, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Myanmar is considering moving the visa section
of its embassy in Bangkok to another site as a security measure after
dissidents raided the mission and took hostages early this month, a Myanmar
diplomat said on Tuesday.

``The embassy is not moving anywhere, but maybe in the long-run we will have
a separate place for the visa section,'' the diplomat told Reuters. ``We
don't know yet, it's just an idea, but we do have other plots of land.

``For the time being we are not doing anything, and if we do decide to do
it, it will take some time.''

Five armed Myanmar dissidents exposed security weaknesses at the embassy in
Bangkok's main business district on October 1 when they burst into the
compound and held 89 people hostage, including many diplomats and their
families, for 25 hours.

The gunmen entered the embassy via the visa section entrance, and many of
the hostages were foreigners collecting or applying for visas.

Moving the visa section would effectively separate most diplomats from the
public area of the embassy.

The attackers freed all the hostages unharmed after the Thai government
provided a getaway helicopter to take the gunmen to a safe area on the
Thai-Myanmar border.