NEWS - Rocks thrown at second stude

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Rocks thrown at second student rally in Myanmar: diplomats

       Tue 25 Aug 98 - 04:53 GMT 

       BANGKOK, Aug 25 (AFP) - Rocks were thrown and riot police
mobilised during a second student demonstration against Myanmar's
       military government in Yangon late on Monday, diplomats said.

       Sources at foreign embassies on Tuesday said up to 100 students
staged the demonstration near the Yangon Institute of Technology
       around 7 p.m. (1130 GMT). 

       Rocks were thrown and riot police were present but details of the
protest were unclear, diplomats said.

       "It's not even clear who threw the rocks. We're not sure if
anyone was arrested," one diplomat said.

       Dozens of people were arrested in the early afternoon Monday
after police with batons and shields charged the biggest protest since
       December 1996, witnesses and diplomats said.

       "They just swept through and dispersed them," said one source,
adding no serious violence was seen.

       Witnesses said up to 150 protestors and some 1,000 onlookers fled
as the riot police moved on the demonstration.

       Roads up to six kilometres (four miles) away from the Hledan
junction beside Yangon University were closed before police dispersed
       the crowd.

       The first demonstration began around 12:30 p.m. (0500 GMT) when
the protestors sat down in the middle of the junction, sources
       said.

       Sources noted the technology institute and Hledan junction were
the two key sites in 1996 demonstrations which led to the junta's
       closure of universities.

       The demonstrations came as leading opposition figure Aung San Suu
Kyi ended her roadside stand-off with the junta after 13 days
       and returned to her home in Yangon.

       Aung San Suu Kyi had been camped in a minibus 25 kilometres (15
miles) northwest of Yangon since being blocked from travelling
       to meet provincial supporters. 

       It was her fourth failed bid in little over a month to travel
outside Yangon.