Thai helicopter 'shot down'

Thai helicopter 'shot down'

BANGKOK (AP): Myanmar dissidents in Bangkok said yesterday a Thai army helicopter that disappeared near the Myanmar border last month was shot down by the Myanmar army.

Its four-man crew was killed in the crash, they said.

Naing Aung, chairman of the All Burma Students Democratic Front, said the information came from Myanmar army radio messages intercepted by several insurgent units along the border. Burma was then name of Myanmar.

Armed elements of the front share some border bases with the Karen National Union, an ethnic group fighting the military government in Yangon.

Spread across pockets of the jungled mountain border, the guerrillas communicate chiefly by radio.

Despite nearly two weeks of searches by several hundred soldiers and civilians on the Thai side of the border, no trace has been found of the army surveillance helicopter and its crew since it disappeared Aug. 28.