20 Myanmar students arrested in Bangkok

BANGKOK, Jan 3: At least 20 exiled students from Myanmar have been arrested in Bangkok after they sneaked out from a Thai refugee camp, allegedly to hold a political demonstration, police said Monday, reports AP.

The students were arrested over the weekend, under suspicion of planning to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the independence of Myanmar, also known as Burma, in the Thai capital on Jan. 4.

In previous years, small numbers of Myanmar dissidents have gathered on such occasions to make peaceful protests against the Myanmar military regime outside the country's embassy in Bangkok.

But Thai authorities now restrict the movements and political activities of the 3,000 student exiles in Thailand after five pro-democracy dissidents stormed the Myanmar Embassy on Oct 1-2, and took hostages.

The siege, which ended when Thailand agreed to give the rebels safe passage to the Myanmar border in return for the release of the captives, badly hurt Thai-Myanmar relations and led to a two-month closure of their long land border.

Thailand has since been rounding up student exiles into the Maneeloy holding center near the Thai-Myanmar border in preparation for their planned resettlement in third countries.

The students at Maneeloy are forbidden from leaving the camp without permission and organizing political protests outside the it, police said.

"They (the arrested students) had sneaked out in small groups since Christmas and they met up in Bangkok for a political purpose," said Police Col Pornchai Benjathikul, the superintendent of Bhak Thor Police Station in Ratchaburi province.

The arrested students, now under investigation at a detention center in Bangkok, could face charges of illegal entry into Thailand and then face deportation, he said.

Some 1,200 Myanmar exiles stay at the Maneeloy camp in the western province of Ratchaburi, 140 kilometers (90 miles) west of Bangkok.

Most of the camp residents are students who were involved in 1988 pro-democracy protests in Myanmar, which almost brought down over two decades of military rule. Thousands of protesters were gunned down in the uprising and many fled to Thailand.

The dissidents in Maneeloy have been recognized as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the grounds they would face persecution if they returned to Myanmar, where the military has been in power since 1962.

The arrested students include three student leaders. Police declined to name them.