AFP : Thai police order anti-Myanma

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thai police order anti-Myanmar junta protestors to disperse
posted at 20:50 hrs (Bangkok time) 

BANGKOK, Aug 8 -- Thai police Saturday ordered some 200 exiled Myanmar
activists to end a rally in Bangkok against their country's junta on the
tenth anniversary of a bloody military crack-down on pro-democracy
demonstrators in the isolated state, witnesses said. 

Some 40 police -- including 10 in riot gear and 10 in plainclothes -- were
at the scene outside Yangon's embassy in the Thai capital. 

''There has been an order to standby in case the situation here gets out of
hand,'' one of the officers told AFP. 

Another, who declined to be named, said the protestors were causing
inconvenience to the general public and should reduce their number to
''seven or eight.'' 

Police were attempting to persuade the protestors to leave, but the
activists said they believed they would be arrested and repatriated. 

''They want to arrest us now and they plan to send us back to Burma,'' said
All Burma Students' Democratic Front coordinator Kaung Myat. 

''But we are not afraid because we are protesting in a peaceful and just
way.'' 

The senior officer negotiating with the chanting protestors, who also
declined to be named, said he had received no orders to arrest them if they
refused to leave. 

The number of protestors swelled early Saturday after some maintained an
overnight vigil at the embassy. 

The vigil comes on the politically-charged 10th anniversary of the
crackdown and ahead of an August 21 deadline set by the opposition for the
junta to convene parliament or face unspecified consequences. 

International pressure, including from the government of neighbouring
Thailand, has been mounting on the ruling military in recent weeks to begin
dialogue with opposition parties. 

The rally started at 8:00 a.m. (1300 GMT) after many stayed outside the
embassy overnight. (AFP)