Myanmar riot police break up rare p

[kyawkyaw@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar riot police break up rare pro-democracy protest

       Mon 24 Aug 98 - 09:28 GMT 

       YANGON, Aug 24 (AFP) - Myanmar riot police broke up a rare student
protest in Yangon Monday in a show of force
       against the increasingly assertive pro-democracy movement, witnesses
and diplomats said.

       Dozens of people were arrested after police with batons and shields
charged the biggest such protest since December
       1996, they added.

       "They just swept through and dispersed them," said one source,
adding no serious violence was seen.

       Witnesses said up to 150 protestors and some 1,000 onlookers
scattered as the riot police advanced.

       "About two truckloads of the protestors were carted away by the riot
police," said one foreign witness. "I didn't see any
       violence but it was difficult to see what was happening to those
being loaded into the trucks."

       The demonstration came as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent a
13th consecutive day locked in a stand-off with
       the junta. It followed an announcement Friday by her National League
for Democracy that it would convene the
       parliament elected in 1990 but never allowed to sit.

       The junta Sunday said such a move would be illegal but exiled
opposition groups have warned of a mass campaign of
       civil disobedience if parliament is not allowed to sit. The NLD-led
opposition won the 1990 polls by a landslide but the
       junta has refused to relinquish power.

       The protestors were wearing headbands carrying the "fighting
peacock" symbol of Myanmar's pro-democracy
       movement and chanted slogans during the 90-minute demonstration,
sources said.

       "Unity among students and the people," they chanted, witnesses said.

       "Bring down the military dictatorship government."

       The protestors also distributed leaflets, saying their demonstration
was organised by a Yangon student union in support of
       the opposition campaign to convene parliament.

       "The bystanders were cheering the protestors," another witness said.
"It was rather sort of a festive atmosphere until the
       lonehtein (riot police) came.

       "It was a real cross-section of society. I saw kids, monks, nuns,
all sorts. People were leaning out of windows."

       Police had closed roads up to six kilometres (four miles) away from
the Hledan junction beside Yangon University to try
       to seal off the entire area before dispersing the crowd. All roads
were later reopened.

       The demonstration began around 12:30 p.m. (0600 GMT) when the
protestors sat down in the middle of the junction, the
       sources said. Traffic was forced to edge around them until police
arrived and began blocking roads.

       A junta spokesman said a group of protestors had "chanted some
slogans and handed out anti-government pamphlets" at
       the junction Monday but put their number at between 50 and 70.

       "The group dispersed after the police came to the scene," he added
in a brief statement, saying no arrests were made
       and no similar incidents were reported elsewhere in Yangon or the
country.

       It was the biggest protest since authorities cracked down on student
demonstrators in Yangon in December 1996,
       diplomats said. That series of demonstrations began with a protest
also at the Hledan junction and spread to other parts
       of the city over the next two weeks before authorities moved in.

       Myanmar universities have been closed since then.

       Aung San Suu Kyi, meanwhile, has been camped out for 13 days in a
minibus on a small rural bridge 25 kilometres (15
       miles) northwest of Yangon since being blocked from travelling to
meet provincial supporters. It was her fourth failed bid
       in little over a month to travel outside Yangon.

       "As far as we know, she is in the same place," said one foreign
diplomat. "And as far as we know, she is fine."

       Her NLD Monday repeated claims that her health was worsening and
that she had not eaten for 11 days.

       The NLD earlier said Aung San Suu Kyi was committed to staying at
the site of the stand-off until all NLD members
       detained or subject to travel restrictions in recent months were
released.