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RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- With riot police ringing
her lakeside compound, opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi made no attempt to
leave her home today to meet supporters at a
Rangoon junction as she has done for several
weekends recently.
About 300 of her supporters waited anyway at
the Saya San junction, named after a
Buddhist monk who led a failed uprising against
British rule during the 1930s.
Officials of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
winner's political party said the government had
demanded she ask permission if she wanted to
leave, but Suu Kyi is refusing to do so.
Suu Kyi has said she is being illegally
confined to her home. Earlier this week, party officials
said that 28 of its members had been arrested.
The leader of Burma's democracy movement has
been kept inside her compound -- with
riot police physically blocking her way when
she has attempted to leave -- since last
weekend when university students took to the
streets in the boldest display of civil dissent
since the nationwide democracy uprising of
1988.
The students were demanding an end to police
brutality, the right to form a students union,
and greater civil liberties. Some called for
democracy in this land long ruled by military
regimes.
Four armored personnel carriers loaded with
soldiers are now guarding the home of Gen.
Than Shwe, the leader of the ruling junta.
Five tanks also remained stationed by the Sule
Pagoda in downtown Rangoon, a focal point
for protests in 1988, and troops had sealed off
Medical University 1, where students had
been staging sit ins earlier in the week.
On Thursday, 92 students presented a petition
to the school's rector demanding information
about three of their colleagues who were led
away by police.
One Australian tourist was manhandled by police
as he attempted to videotape the sit-in.
On Wednesday, troops entered the Mandalay
Institute of Technology to break up a
demonstration that involved between 2,000 and
3,000 students.
Members of a young Buddhist monks union also
stoned cars of regional military
commanders who had come to Mandalay to seek the
blessings of a respected Buddhist
elder monk on Monday.
The military officials were forced to turn
back.
Several trains from Mandalay to Rangoon were
delayed this week because troops were
searching for students heading down to join
protests in the capital.
[By PATRICK MCDOWELL, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 14, 1996].
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