By Busaba Sivasomboon
Associated Press Writer
Friday, Oct. 1, 1999; 7:37 a.m. EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand –– A dozen young rebels armed with assault rifles and hand grenades stormed the Myanmar Embassy today, taking staffers and foreigners hostage and demanding the release of all political prisoners in their military-ruled homeland, police said.

Three of the hostages, including a Thai guard and a Myanmar Embassy gardener, were later released.

Calling themselves the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, the unknown group also demanded the convening of an elected parliament and dialogue between Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military.

The demands were contained in a fax sent to local media. It said no hostages had been harmed and asked that food be sent to them.

One American, three Canadians, three Frenchmen, one German and a small number of Malaysians, Singaporeans and Thais were among the hostages, according to AsiaWorks, a local media group that contacted one of the foreigners inside the embassy.

The foreigners, who were all reported safe, were probably at the embassy to obtain visas.

"If the (military) would not follow our demands it is fully responsible for the consequences of this action," the English-language statement said.

Chettha Thanajaro, an Interior Ministry adviser, said he believed the group had seized about 30 hostages inside the embassy. Police surrounding the area dove for cover as several shots rang out from within the walled compound.

Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart and Gen. Pornsak Durongkavibul, deputy head of the national police, were negotiating with the hostage-takers as more than 100 police surrounded the embassy compound. Sanan said the Thais would not use any force.

A Myanmar government statement received in Bangkok said the ambassador, not in the embassy at the time of the takeover, was working with Thai authorities to secure release of the hostages.

A Myanmar dissident leader, Naing Aung, said he had never heard of the Vigorous Student Burmese Warriors and thought it may have been formed specifically for this action. The group said it was acting completely on its own.

After the takeover, a man and a woman lowered the Myanmar flag inside the compound and replaced it with one emblazoned with a fighting peacock, the symbol of the anti-military movement in Myanmar, also known as Burma. They then fired pistol shots in salute.

The embassy is the site of frequent protests by Myanmar students and other exiles opposed to the military regime in their country.

These groups, operating along the Thai-Myanmar border, recently pledged to step up activities against the regime, which seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising.

The military has refused to negotiate with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi or to convene a parliament legally elected in general elections in 1990.