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Reuters-Thai police shift dissident
- Subject: Reuters-Thai police shift dissident
- From: kyawkyaw@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 05:56:00
Thai police shift dissidents from Myanmar
embassy
07:07 a.m. Aug 24, 1998 Eastern
BANGKOK, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Thai police
said on Monday they had moved 14
Myanmar dissidents from a protest site in
front of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok
but denied they had been arrested.
Police said the protesters were moved as
they had been blocking the entrance to a
diplomat's compound and had been taken to
a holding centre for Myanmar refugees
south of Bangkok.
The All Burma Students' Democratic Front
(ABSDF), an organisation of Myanmar
dissidents, complained that the 14 had
been arrested, but police denied this.
``We just took them to immigration
department to check their identity and have
already sent them back to the holding
centre,'' a police officer told Reuters.
Some 100 Myanmar dissidents in exile
supported by Thai activists have staged a
sit-in protest outside the embassy since
August 3 to back demands for a parliament
by Myanmar's main opposition party.
About 200 dissidents have been living at a
shelter for Myanmar dissidents in
Thailand's Rachaburi province since 1995.
While they are not allowed to take part in
political activity as a condition for
remaining in Thailand, police say that
from time to time dissidents sneak out of the
centre to stage protests against Myanmar's
military government.
By Monday afternoon about 20 protesters,
half of them Thai, were still at the
embassy.
``We believe they will all leave by later
today,'' a police officer said.