RE RANGOON STUDENTS' DEMO

[guest2@xxxxxxxxxx]

Re "Storm at RIT". On 21/Oct/96, K Tint wrote in reg.burma:
 
"Storm at RIT 
 
We have received a report about an unrest of some students at
Rangoon Institute of Technology on October 21, 1996. We are
trying to track for further details."
 
 
BBC World Service News of 9.00 GMT, 23/Oct/96, carried a brief
report about the response of students to what was probably the
"unrest" referred to. The BBC said that several hundred
students in Rangoon had held a sit-in demonstration on Tuesday
[22nd Oct] "against alleged police brutality. The students
held the sit-in near a police station. They were protesting
about an incident on Sunday in which they said police beat
several students who were taken into custody following an
argument with a restaurant owner. The demonstrators dispersed
after teachers and university officials told them the
authorities had agreed to take action against the police
officers involved. The students said the demonstration was not
political, but the BBC Southeast Asia correspondant says the
authorities reacted by restoring a road block near the house
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi which had been removed
on Monday." 
 
Earlier BBC World Service bulletins (6.00 and 7.00 GMT of
23/Oct/96) said that Burmese TV (and radio?) said that the
authorities did not know they were dealing with students. 
 
All this suggests that SLORC is trying to avoid provoking the
students. There was no indication that any of the protesters
were arrested or that those arrested on Sunday had been
released.
 
 
David Arnott (Burma Peace Foundation) -- darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx