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An Irrawaddy correspondent spoke to two former hostages, Prasert Luengaramvej and Antoine Marcotte, about their experiences. Prasert Luengaramvej is a Thai businessman who acted as a go-between between Thai officials and Burmese activists during the embassy siege. He works for a Thai pharmaceutical company involved in business dealings with Burma. Q: Did you ever think that you would die? A: I thought that I wouldn’t return home. Throughout the takeover, they said that they would not kill any Thais. But there wasn’t anything that showed that they wouldn’t. They fired guns. I hated it. I thought I had a fifty-fifty percent chance of dying or getting out. Q: How did you feel when you were in the Burmese embassy? A: Afraid, I was very afraid. I didn’t think I would get to see my family again. I thought I would die in the embassy. The seizure of the embassy had the opportunity for the loss of life. I knew that it wouldn’t be resolved easily. Q: When were you scared the most? A: When I drove the van out of the embassy to the Bangkok Christian School, where the helicopter landed after it hadn’t been able to land in the embassy. This is when I thought that Johnny didn’t believe me. Q: How do you feel now about your captors, Johnny and the others? A: I understand them because in Thailand the Thais have already passed through incidents like theirs such as October 14, 1973, and other similar events. Since then everyone (Thai) is together and united in order to develop democracy. Because of this, I and everyone understands them. But I don’t agree with their methods of force, the use of weapons and the seizing of the embassy. Q: In the future will you continue your pharmaceutical business with Burma, and if so when you go to the embassy will you go with police protection? A: I’ll be afraid to go for awhile. In the future, I will continue my pharmaceutical business, but we don’t deal directly with Burma, we have a representative on the border, which acts as an intermediary. Q: Why do you think that some hostages were supportive of their captors? A: Because democracy is something that everyone wants. And in Burma everyone wants it a lot. Antoine Marcotte, 31, a Canadian tourist on vacation in Southeast Asia, discusses his experience in the embassy. Q: Were you cognizant of the democracy movement before you decided to go to Burma? A: No. We knew that Burma had some internal problems and that it was under a military regime. But we didn’t know to what extent. Q: Where did the headbands come from? Did they make you wear them? A: They passed them out and it was clear that they wanted us to wear them, yes. Q: Did the Burmese diplomats wear them? A: I couldn’t see them. As they were passed out every one who got one wore it. Q: Did you want to wear it? A: No, I think that some people might have thought it was appropriate to wear them at the time. I don’t see any political statement underneath. If you want to win somebody over, putting a gun to their head is not the way to do it. Q: If you wore it in captivity, why didn’t you throw it away when you were released? A: I still have it, as a souvenir. Again I’d like to say I support any democracy movement around the world. I deplore the use of force by any means.