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New demonstration keeps the pressur



New demonstration keeps the pressure on Myanmar junta

       Fri 04 Sep 98 - 12:33 GMT

       YANGON, Sept 4 (AFP) - Myanmar students staged a fresh rally against
the country's junta as opposition forces
       maintained pressure on the military rulers, witnesses said Friday.

       Students at Hlaing campus -- numbering between several hundred and
several thousand according to different
       estimates -- shouted anti-government slogans during a peaceful
protest Thursday night, they added.

       Authorities responded by closing the campus, which largely serves as
a preparatory school for other tertiary
       institutions, they added. Most of the protestors were from outside
Yangon and were staying in dormitories on the
       campus, which are now to be closed.

       The gates to the campus were locked by police, with some 1,000
students remaining inside. No clashes were
       reported and there was not believed to have been any direct contact
between security forces and protestors.

       Some 300 police remained around the campus, but one western diplomat
said it was a "low-key security presence."

       "It's a watching brief," they added. "It's not a big deal at this
stage."

       Police were carrying batons and shields, but no firearms were in
sight.

       The students were angered by arrangements for their courses, which
have only restarted in recent weeks after
       universities across the country were closed following campus unrest
in December 1996.

       Students were given only a few days of classes to prepare for
examinations, which at Hlaing are scheduled for
       September 7, in what foreign diplomats say is a bid to rid the system
of those involved in the 1996 unrest and restart
       the education process.

       No other incidents were reported in Yangon or elsewhere in the
country Friday.

       Political tensions are rising in Myanmar and the leading opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) of
       Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has vowed to convene the
parliament elected in 1990 but which has never
       been allowed to sit.

       The opposition won the 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta has
refused to relinquish power.

       Some 3,000 students shouting slogans against Myanmar's junta staged a
protest at Hlaing Wednesday as another
       estimated 800 students chanted at the nearby Yangon Institute of
Technology. Both protests ended peacefully.

       Those demonstrations were the biggest since the 1996 unrest. Riot
police broke up a smaller protest outside Yangon
       University on August 25 and arrested dozens of people, according to
witnesses.

       Another protest was staged later that day at Yangon Institute of
Technology, during which rocks were thrown and
       riot police mobilised.

       The junta meanwhile detained currency traders in a bid to bolster the
beleaguered kyat currency, which is at new
       lows amid a devastating regional economic crisis, foreign diplomats
said.

       Some 40 currency dealers were rounded up amid fears that escalating
political tension could see the artifically
       pegged unit slip further, the diplomats added.

       "I think some of it is the crisis and some of it is the political
situation in Burma," one western diplomat said by
       phone, using the former official name for Myanmar.

       "They've occasionally done this before, and the traders have always
been released without charge when things calm
       down."

       The kyat was trading at about 380 to the dollar on Yangon's black
market Friday, but earlier crashed through the 400
       level in some parts of the country, residents said.

       The black market rate was around 150 to the dollar before Asia became
embroiled in an economic crisis last July.
       The official rate is six kyat to the dollar, but is almost totally
ignored.

       The detained money changers are licensed by junta in a de facto
endorsement of the black market trade.

       Junta officials could not be immediately reached for comment.


)AFP 1998