Thais play down fallout of Myanmar embassy siege<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (Agencies) Thailand will not change its policy of
\nsheltering dissidents and refugees despite last week's attack on
\nMyanmar's embassy in Bangkok by five armed students, Thai
\nofficials said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
They also said the incident was unlikely to affect ties with
\nneighboring Yangon.<\/p>\n
Myanmar called for Bangkok on Tuesday to crack down on exiled
\ndissidents, who Yangon claims are conducting terrorist activities
\nfrom inside refugee camps in Thailand.<\/p>\n
The call comes after the five gunmen calling themselves
\n\"Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors\" took almost 40 people hostage
\nat the Myanmar embassy here, before fleeing by helicopter to the
\nThai-Myanmar border Saturday.<\/p>\n
Col. Thein Swe, a former military attache in Bangkok, said
\narmed terrorist groups were hiding inside 24 \"so-called refugee
\ncamps\" in Thailand.<\/p>\n
Myanmar accused Thailand on Monday of glorifying the gunmen
\nafter Bangkok called them student pro-democracy activists and
\neven suggested that some foreigners taken hostage had helped to
\nstage the attack. The gunmen took the hostages but later freed
\nthem and escaped.<\/p>\n
\"Yes, there is some sentiment (from Yangon) as the incident is
\nstill fresh, but that feeling will eventually evaporate,\" Foreign
\nMinister Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.<\/p>\n
\"The long-standing and close relations between the two
\ncountries will not be affected by the incident and all aspects of
\ncooperation will continue as usual,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Creating confidence is the top priority for the time being,\"
\nSurin said, adding that Thailand had increased the number of
\nsecurity personnel at the Myanmar embassy.<\/p>\n
Myanmar's military government had also agreed to step up
\nsecurity at the Thai embassy in Yangon, Surin said.<\/p>\n
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said: \"The
\naction of a few people will not change the long-standing Thai
\nhumanitarian policy. Thailand is the Buddhist nation where we
\nprovide sheltering for people who run away from suffering and
\nseek help and refuge. One incident cannot make us change this
\npolicy.\"<\/p>\n
Thailand provides shelter for dissident Myanmar students after
\nYangon killed thousands of pro-democracy supporters in late 1988.<\/p>\n
Sukhumbhand and another Thai official were taken by the
\nembassy attackers as guarantors of safe passage in a helicopter.
\nThe attackers released them after making their escape at a town
\nalong the Thai-Myanmar border.<\/p>\n
Myanmar on Tuesday urged Thailand to strictly control camps
\nfor Myanmar refugees, which it said harbored anti-Yangon
\nterrorists including those who stormed the Myanmar embassy in
\nBangkok last week.<\/p>\n
At a news conference in Yangon, Thein Swe referred to the Thai
\nrefugee camps, which harbor over 100,000 displaced people from
\nMyanmar, as places where \"terrorists received explosives, weapons
\nand political training.\"<\/p>\n
He said those responsible for the embassy siege had returned
\nto the Maneeloy holding center in central Ratchaburi province --
\nwhere about 1,000 Myanmar asylum-seekers await application for
\nresettlement in third countries.<\/p>",
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