Five armed rebels who seized the Myanmar Embassy released dozens of hostages yesterday and flew in a helicopter to the Thai-Myanmar border, where they were allowed to go free.
The pro-democracy rebels released all 38 hostages, and another 51 Myanmar citizens who had hidden inside the walled embassy compound, said Thai Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart.
Sanan, who was one of the Thai government's negotiators with the rebels, said the rebels had been given ``safe passage to their own country.''
``We don't consider them to be terrorists,'' he said at a news conference. ``They are student activists struggling for democracy. We have done what we have promised to them.''
The peaceful outcome to the siege, praised by groups sympathetic to the pro-democracy cause, was greeted less tolerantly by Myanmar's military government.
``Although the incident has been over, it is also very important to make these criminals realize that no matter under what pretext or disguise it might have been staged, the peace loving people of the world community will not tolerate the criminal and the terrorist activities they have committed,'' said an official news release.
Sanan said Thai officials had been in touch with the Myanmar government throughout the crisis and were told they could take any action they saw fit. The Myanmar government had said the takeover was an internal Thai matter.
Sanan said he did not know where the five gunmen were heading and warned legal action would be taken against them if they returned. There was speculation the rebels might seek protection from the Karen, the last major ethnic minority group fighting the central Myanmar government from border enclaves.
Speaking on a local radio station, the dissident group's leader, who identified himself as Johnny, earlier said the rebels wanted to be flown to the border area to join an unidentified ``revolutionary group.''
Two senior Thai officials who volunteered to fly with the five young rebels as hostages returned safely, Sanan said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra and a senior refugee official, Chaiyapruek Sawaengcharoen, later returned to Bangkok from the drop-off point about 2 kilometers inside Thai territory from the frontier, he said.
The rebels, who during the 26-hour takeover demanded a return to democracy in their military-ruled homeland, deceived the Thais into thinking there were more than a dozen of them inside.
The five were armed with three AK-47 assault rifles, some handguns and grenades but reportedly did not mistreat any of the hostages, which Sanan said included 10 foreigners.
Witnesses said the rebels stormed through the embassy gate on Friday armed with rifles and grenades they had hidden in guitar cases.
Gunshots were heard several times in the early hours of the siege, but there were no reports of anyone being shot.
Several of the freed foreigners chanted ``Free Burma'' and waved revolutionary red headbands and flags as the rebels took off early yesterday afternoon from a grassy playing field at the Thai Air Force Academy. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Thai authorities said they did not have a complete breakdown of the foreign hostages but earlier reports said they included nationals of France, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Germany and the United States.
``They were very nice. Everything is going to be fine. Free Burma,'' one of the foreigners shouted to a reporter.
In a statement sent to news media right after their takeover, the dissidents -- calling themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors -- had demanded the release of all political prisoners in their homeland, a meaningful dialogue between Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military, and the convening of an elected parliament.
Myanmar hostages.
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