THE NATION - November 7, 1999

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THE NATION - November 7, 1999

Headlines

Burmese rebels yet to surrender

FIVE armed Burmese militants who had allegedly offered to give themselves up
for seizing the Burmese Embassy early last month have not yet surrendered,
top Thai government and military leaders said yesterday.

The confirmation cleared the confusion which arose on Thursday morning,
following the highly-publicised police preparation to fly the five from
Western Ratchaburi province to Bangkok for a press conference on their
surrender.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart and
Army Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont all told reporters in separate interviews
yesterday that the five gunmen had not yet given themselves up to Thai
authorities.

Chuan said the armed group, which stormed the Burmese Embassy on Oct 1 and
seized more than 80 Burmese and foreign hostages, had committed a crime
against the state and that Thailand had already issued a warrant for their
arrest.

Quoting information from the National Security Council, the premier
confirmed that the group had contacted Thai authorities about their
surrender but there had been no further progress on the matter.

He added that the group ''cannot set any conditions for their surrender and
will be prosecuted according to our laws.''

''[Interior Minister] Sanan [Kachornprasart] told me that, as of last night
[Oct 4], there had not been a surrender. If they want to give themselves up,
it's their matter,'' said the premier.

When asked whether the attackers seemed to avoid handing themselves in for
fear of repatriation to Burma, Chuan said the Thai government could not give
them any assurances on the matter.

''If they surrender themselves or if they enter Thailand, we will arrest and
prosecute them. Surrender is their matter, but for a crime that was
committed on Thai soil, we will use Thai laws,'' Chuan said.

''The prosecution process will follow our laws, clear and definite, and
absolutely without any bargaining. If they are found in Thailand, they will
be arrested instantly.

''These students cannot set any conditions [for their surrender] because it
will not mean anything, as Thailand will not accept them.''

The premier said he did not believe that the arrest of the five gunmen would
reduce the tension along the Thai-Burmese border following the Burmese
junta's abrupt closure of its frontier shortly after the embassy siege,
''because the two matters are not related''.

He said he believed the gunmen did not suddenly want to surrender out of the
blue, indicating that they must be under some threat of danger. ''Simply,
they might find our country safer because we follow the rules of law for any
crime committed,'' he said.

Chuan said he was not concerned that the Burmese military government would
request the repatriation of the armed group because the crime took place in
Thailand, and everything would proceed accordingly to Thai law.

He said there had not yet been any reaction from Rangoon over the reported
surrender.

Sanan yesterday said ''the confusion over the arrest of the Burmese students
was the result of rumour spreading by people who didn't know the truth.''

He also blamed the high-profile preparation for a press conference at Thung
Song Hong police station as ''a reaction to sheer rumour''.

''The police officers who made the preparations yesterday [Thursday] were
idiots. They didn't know anything, but set off to prepare [a press
conference] although they hadn't yet see them [the gunmen] in person,'' said
Sanan.

He added that he had checked with all security agencies involved including
the Army, and the Supreme Command, but none had received any information of
a pending surrender.

He said the Burmese junta had not yet contacted Thailand or issued any
comments on the matter, but the Burmese ambassador to Thailand had earlier
informed us that he wanted Thailand to apply local laws in this case.

He added that if Burma requested their repatriation, Thailand would have to
see if the two countries had a bilateral extradition treaty.

Surayud yesterday said there had been no confirmation as to their surrender,
and that he did not know where the five men were taking refuge.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday that it was not possible for
the five assailants to be tried at the World Court ''which only takes up
disputes between sovereign states and not individual cases''.

Assistant Bangkok Police Chief Pol Maj-Gen Chakthip Kulchorn Na Ayudhya, who
had flown to Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district on Thursday to pick up the
Burmese group, accepted yesterday that ''a misunderstanding'' over the
surrender prompted Thung Song Hong police officers to prepare for an
investigation, including a call for some witnesses to testify.

''I want to confirm that the students have not yet given themselves up and
that there is no definite date of their surrender yet, because they haven't
contacted us,'' said Chakthip.

It remained unclear yesterday as to what prompted the Burmese raiders to
back down on their surrender.

According to highly-informed police sources, officers from the Special
Branch Police had opened negotiations with the Burmese gunmen for their
surrender on Nov 2.

But on Thursday -- their due day for surrender, communication lines between
Baan Bor Klerng, a Karen village inside Burma where the group was living,
and the Border Patrol Police's 137th Unit in Suan Phung, were cut and road
transport through the Tenasserim mountain range was not possible because of
torrential rain.

Chakthip, who flew by helicopter to Suan Phung to collect the gunmen, and
other officers from Bangkok waited until 6 pm, when darkness ruled out any
chance of a journey to the village for safety reasons.

They later returned without the five men.

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THE NATION - November 7, 1999

Headlines

Spies erred on Burmese gunmen

METROPOLITAN Police assistant commissioner Pol Maj Gen Jakthip Kulchorn
admitted yesterday that police had received intelligence reports that five
Burmese dissidents who raided the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok would
surrender.

Jakthip said he ordered Thung Song Hong police station on Thursday to be
prepared to announce the surrender because a police agent, who was working
near the border, had learned that the five dissidents would surrender
following much pressure from the Burmese government.

The news that the dissidents would surrender had caught much attention from
the media.

Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart became very angry after none of the
gunmen turned up.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said it is unlikely that the five Burmese
dissidents who raided the Burmese embassy in Bangkok will be tried in the
International Court as that tribunal considers matters between states only.

Despite an earlier report saying the five Burmese raiders were considering
turning themselves in to the Thai government with the condition that they
would be tried at the International Court, Surin said the five raiders would
have to be tried in a Thai court because they broke Thai Law.

Surin said that the Thai police were currently tracking down the whereabouts
of the five dissidents.

The five Burmese students took over the embassy in October. They, however,
were given safe exit by the Thai government in exchange for the safe release
of all hostages.

There was speculation last week that the five dissidents had surrendered and
were detained by Thai police at a border camp in Ratchaburi province.

Surin also noted that the report saying that the Burmese students were
negotiating to be tried at the International Court was confusing and a
misunderstanding.

As for the possibility that the five students would be seeking political
exile in Thailand, he said that the request has to go through the procedures
of Thai law.

Nonetheless, he noted that the students have been charged with eight to nine
cases, all of which were serious. The possibility therefore is unlikely.

Y THE Immigration Police Bureau (IPB) said the government may ease its
policy of strictly enforcing deportation of illegal Burmese entrants.

IPB Pol Col Wisanu Muangpraesi said the government may ease the forced
repatriation law if Rangoon carried out its threat of shooting returning
expatriates on sight.

Northwestern province Tak police said yesterday they had arrested 200
Burmese illegal entrants deep in the jungle and forcibly repatriated 1,600
others by long-tail river boats across the border from Mae Sot district.

Reports said 100 of the repatriated Burmese had already sneaked back into
Thai territory.

New Aspiration Party leader Chavalit Yongchaiyudh attacked the government
over what he called the mishandling of the issue of Burmese illegal
entrants.

He said they should be gradually repatriated to Burma.

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