AFP : Demo against Myanmar junta en

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Demo against Myanmar junta enters fifth day in Bangkok
Sun 09 Aug 98 - 05:36 GMT 

BANGKOK, Aug 9 (AFP) - An anti-junta protest by exiled Myanmar
pro-democracy activists entered its fifth day outside Yangon's embassy here
Sunday, with the demonstrators refusing police requests to disperse.

"They keep telling us to leave but we are staying," said one of the protest
leaders, Kyaw Mint.

"We will stay until at least August 22 and will see what happens then," he
added, referring to an August 21 deadline set by the leading opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) to convene parliament or face
unspecified consequences.

If parliament was allowed to convene, the protestors would leave, he added,
while saying this seemed unlikely.

Others among the some 100 protestors camped on a busy roadside outside the
embassy early Sunday said they would begin hunger strikes on August 22 if
the NLD demand was not met.

The vigil has steadily grown from just a handful of protestors to some 250
who rallied Saturday on the 10th anniversary of a military crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators in Myanmar which left thousands dead, according
to unofficial tolls.

Many of the protestors, most of whom were students who fled to Thailand
following the crackdown, returned to their homes for the night Saturday.

But a hard core of 100 sang through the night as they sheltered from the
rain under canvas sheets.

They said Thai police visited the scene during the night and told them they
would be arrested if they did not disperse.

Some 50 police, including 10 in riot gear, were deployed outside the
embassy at one stage Saturday as senior officers tried to negotiate with
the protestors. They gradually withdrew as journalists looked on, saying
the vigil would be allowed to continue as long as it did not block the gate
to the embassy compound.