Riot police disperse pro-democracy

[kyawkyaw@xxxxxxx]

Riot police disperse pro-democracy protestors in Yangon

       Mon 24 Aug 98 - 08:04 GMT 

       BANGKOK, Aug 24 (AFP) - Riot police dispersed more than 120
pro-democracy protestors in downtown Yangon
       Monday, arresting an unknown number but without any serious
violence, sources said by telephone.

       "They just swept through and dipersed them," said one of the sources.

       Witnesses said protestors and some 500 onlookers scattered as riot
police advanced. "I think they just ran," said
       another source.

       "Some were arrested but most got away."

       The protestors were wearing headbands carrying the "fighting
peacock" symbol of Myanmar's pro-democracy
       movement and chanted slogans during the 90-minute demonstration,
sources said.

       Police had closed roads up to six kilometres (four miles) away from
the key Hledan junction beside Yangon
       University in a bid to seal off the entire area, they added.

       The demonstration began around 12:30 p.m. (0600 GMT) when the
protestors sat down in the middle of the junction,
       the sources said. Traffic was forced to edge around the crowd until
police arrived and began blocking off the roads.

       Junta officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

       The protest came as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent a 13th
consecutive day locked in a stand-off with the
       junta and follows an announcement Friday by her National League for
Democracy that it would convene the
       parliament elected in 1990 but never allowed to sit.

       The junta Sunday warned such a move would be illegal.

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