Rocks Thrown at Second Rally in Bur

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Rocks thrown at second student rally in Myanmar: diplomats
Tue 25 Aug 98 - 04:53 GMT
BANGKOK, Aug 25 (AFP) - Rocks were thrown and riot police mobilised during a
second
student demonstration against Myanmar's military government in Yangon late on
Monday,
diplomats said.
Sources at foreign embassies on Tuesday said up to 100 students staged the
demonstration near
the Yangon Institute of Technology around 7 p.m. (1130 GMT).
Rocks were thrown and riot police were present but details of the protest were
unclear,
diplomats said.
"It's not even clear who threw the rocks. We're not sure if anyone was
arrested," one diplomat
said.
Dozens of people were arrested in the early afternoon Monday after police with
batons and
shields charged the biggest protest since December 1996, witnesses and
diplomats said.
"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 fled as the riot
police moved on
the demonstration.
Roads up to six kilometres (four miles) away from the Hledan junction beside
Yangon University
were closed before police dispersed the crowd.
The first demonstration began around 12:30 p.m. (0500 GMT) when the protestors
sat down in
the middle of the junction, sources said.
Sources noted the technology institute and Hledan junction were the two key
sites in 1996
demonstrations which led to the junta's closure of universities.
The demonstrations came as leading opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi ended
her roadside
stand-off with the junta after 13 days and returned to her home in Yangon.
Aung San Suu Kyi had been camped in a minibus 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.