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SCMP-Riot police baton-charge stude



South China Morning Post
Tuesday  August 25  1998

Riot police baton-charge students 

AGENCIES in Rangoon 
Riot police broke up a rare student protest yesterday in a show of force
against the in creasingly assertive pro-democracy movement as opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi ended a 13-day stand-off with the junta.

Police with batons and shields charged the biggest such protest held since
December 1996, witnesses and diplomats said. "They just swept through and
dispersed them," said a source. No serious violence was seen.

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

"About two truckloads of the protesters were carted away by the riot
police," said a foreign witness.

The demonstration came as Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and three supporters returned
to the capital, Rangoon, after her roadside stand-off outside the city.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was seen entering her compound on Rangoon's University
Avenue in the afternoon, a source said. The National League for Democracy
(NLD) said earlier it wanted the opposition leader to call off the protest
due to her "critical health condition".

Her doctors said she was suffering from kidney and urinary tract problems,
low blood pressure and dizziness when they were last allowed to see her
Friday. Government officials said she returned of her own free will to the
capital in their care.

Tin Oo, an NLD vice-chairman, reported that doctors told her yesterday she
was suffering from dehydration and possible hypoglycaemic shock. She was
persuaded to voluntarily return.

The party had said before she was willing to give up the protest if
authorities freed 97 of her supporters who have been detained since May.

The protesters in Rangoon wore headbands carrying the "fighting peacock"
symbol of the pro-democracy movement and chanted slogans during the
90-minute demonstration, sources said.

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

Police had closed roads up to 6km away from Rangoon University to try to
seal off the entire area before dispersing the crowd.

The demonstration began when the protesters sat down in the middle of the
junction beside the university, sources said. Traffic was forced to edge
around them until police arrived and began blocking roads.

In another development, the Government said it met opposition leaders
yesterday for the second time in a week. Minister of Home Affairs Tin
Hlaing held talks with NLD executive committee members Than Tun and Soe
Myint.