Hijacking Drama Ends in Thailand; Students Free 83 on Myanmar Plane

U TAPHAO, Thailand —  Two university students who forced a domestic Myanmar airliner to fly to Thailand freed their last 50 hostages unharmed early today after a nine-hour drama.

They orginally held 83 hostages.

“I persuaded them not to blow up the plane or kill the people. I told them all the people on the plane were Burmese,” said Deputy Prime Minister Thienchai Sirisamphan, who negotiated with the students.

He told reporters that the hijackers, both men aged 22 from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, had wanted publicity for a seven-point list of political demands on the military government there.

The two men, who reportedly carried hand grenades aboard the plane, demanded that the military, which took power 13 months ago, release all detained monks, students and political prisoners, pull all troops back to their barracks and lift a nationwide overnight curfew.

The ruling Myanmar military council crushed a mass movement for democracy, led initially by students, when it seized power in a violent coup in September, 1988.

The Fokker-28 plane had been commandeered Friday afternoon shortly after leaving the southern Myanmar port of Mergui.

Police identified the hijackers as Ye Yint and Ye Thi Ha. Myanmar sources said the names appear to be pseudonyms: Ye Yint means “Brave,” and Ye Thi Ha means “Lion.”