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Gunmen strom Thai hospital, hold 500 as hostages

RATCHABURI (Thailand): Gunmen from a Myanmar guerrilla faction dubbed "God's Army" stormed a provincial hospital in Thailand on Monday and took about 500 medical staff and patients hostage, Thai officials said.

Witnesses said the attackers, numbering about 10, fired repeated volleys of shots after breaking into the 770-bed provincial hospital at Ratchaburi, 120 km west of Bangkok.

Thai radio said a teacher from a nearby school was wounded by a stray bullet, but there were no reports of other casualties.

The guerrilla group, a breakaway faction of Myanmar's ethnic Karen National Union rebels, includes former Myanmar students and child soldiers. It is led by two 12-year-old twins -- Johnny and Luther Htoo.

Witnesses said the gunmen freed about 20 hostages, most of them elderly, after Thai army chief General Surayudh Julanond said he had ordered his troops to stop shelling the guerrillas' base on the Myanmar border.

Seventeen hostages escaped from a Thai provincial hospital seized on Monday by gunmen from a Myanmar guerrilla faction, police at the scene said.

The 17 fled through a back door of Ratchaburi hospital in western Thailand while the gunmen were releasing four other hostages.

The gunmen have demanded that Thailand stop assisting Myanmar government attacks, provide doctors and nurses to treat wounded fighters, and allow the rebels freedom to cross the border. They warned they would harm the hostages if there was a move to end the siege by force.

A Thai Channel Seven news cameraman was allowed into the hospital to hear their demands.

His footage showed dozens of patients trapped in the hospital waiting room, including many women and young school children. They were watched over by men in jungle fatigues armed with M-16 and AK-47 rifles and masked with black balaclava helmets.

"We would like to ask the Thai authorities to tell the army to stop shelling us," one of the attackers said in broken Thai.

The cameramen estimated there were about 10 attackers.

The hostage crisis is the second to hit Thailand in less than four months and a major embarrassment for the government and especially its Interior Ministry and security forces.

In October, a group of five armed Myanmar dissidents took over the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok for 25 hours. They took refuge with the God's Army faction after releasing their hostages and being allowed free passage to the border by the Thai authorities.

A Thai negotiator told reporters the attackers claimed 200-300 people had been killed in Thai shelling in support of Myanmar government attacks and demanded an investigation. Thai border force commander Lieutenant-General Thaweep Suwanasing told reporters his forces had not shelled civilians, only military targets.

Provincial governor Komain Daengthongdee quoted the gunmen as saying they had planted a bomb near the hospital entrance. A senior police officer who entered the hospital to negotiate was greeted by warning shots, but later allowed in.

A nurse inside the hospital told Thai television by mobile phone that she had locked her ward to keep them out and told the patients to lie on the floor for safety.

"It's very tense," she said. "Most of the attackers are in general and emergency wards. We have the patients lying down on the floor so they can't be seen and locked the door. I saw them walk by. They tried to come in but couldn't."-Reuters