AFP-Thai authorities round up Myanm

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thai authorities round up Myanmar demonstrators
Wed 26 Aug 98 - 10:00 GMT 

BANGKOK, Aug 26 (AFP) - Thai police Wednesday rounded up eight Myanmar
activists staging an anti-government demonstration outside their embassy
here, bringing to more than 10 the number in detention, special branch
police said.

"They were arrested by area police and are now still under interrogation at
the immigration bureau," a special branch officer told AFP.

He said activists had been arrested in three sweeps on Saturday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday. All were charged with illegal entry into Thailand and would
probably face deportation.

The exiled All Burma Students' Democratic Front released a statement saying
16 protesters had been detained in Wednesday's raid.

"When the police arrived at the embassy the students say the officers
didn't ask for any documents or identification but arrested them en masse,"
the statement said.

"The police have also pulled down all the posters that were put up by the
protesters."

The statement said about 30 exiled Myanmar activists were now detained in
Bangkok's immigration jail as a result of the roundups.

The arrests follow increased pressure from the embassy in central Bangkok
for authorities to clear the protesters away from the gate.

The protest by exiled Myanmar pro-democracy activists has continued since
August 3 despite calls from police to disperse.

Some 200 protesters crowded the front of the embassy at its height.

Posters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been pasted on
the embassy's walls and gate. 

Slogans called on the Myanmar junta to convene the parliament elected in
1990. The opposition won that election by a landslide but the junta has
refused to recognise the result.

Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan has insisted the activists be allowed
to demonstrate but urged them not to disrupt the work of embassy staff.

"Thailand will try to deal with this kind of situation in a gentle way by
explaing to them our reasons," he told reporters on Tuesday.