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AFP-Anti-Myanmar junta demo enters



Anti-Myanmar junta demo enters twelfth day in Bangkok
Sun 16 Aug 98 - 07:50 GMT 

BANGKOK, Aug 16 (AFP) - A protest by pro-democracy activists outside
Myanmar's embassy here entered its twelfth day Sunday as the country's
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi continued her roadside standoff with
security forces near Yangon.

Thai police said about 50 activists were keeping up their peaceful protest
outside the embassy compound, much less than the 250 protesters last
weekend.

They have pledged to remain at the embassy until the junta convenes
parliament, citing an August 21 deadline set by Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD).

The demonstrators have ignored police pressure for them to move on, and
several have been injured in bottle-throwing attacks by unidentified
assailants.

They are protesting against alleged human rights abuses under Myanmar's
military government.

Exiled activist groups have called for a mass campaign of civil
disobedience in Myanmar and warned of confrontation if the junta refuses to
convene parliament by the NLD's deadline.

The NLD won 1990 elections by a landslide but the junta has refused to
relinquish power.

The Bangkok protest continued as Aung San Suu Kyi spent Sunday in a
roadside confrontation with Myanmar security forces for a fifth consecutive
day, apparently in a bid to highlight junta restrictions on her freedom of
movement.

A similiar standoff last month ended when the Nobel peace laureate was
forcibly driven back to Yangon. Her supporters said her health had suffered
and blamed the junta.