NEWS - Myanmar riot police break up

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NOTE: They are not covering anything this time !!

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.

                                                                                        
©AFP 1998