Riot Police At Myanmr University

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Riot Police at Myanmar University

 .c The Associated Press 

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Riot police took up positions outside a Yangon
university today during a protest by nearly 500 students, the biggest show of
discontent this year against Myanmar's military regime. 

The riot police, equipped with clubs and shields, stood by as teachers
negotiated with the students to end the protest at the Yangon Institute of
Technology. Gates to the campus were locked and the students did not try to
reach the streets. 

A spokesman for the government, in a fax to The Associated Press in Bangkok,
Thailand, said there had been no arrests and that school authorities were
handling the problem. 

Meanwhile, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met diplomats in Yangon, a
move that could antagonize the government, which feels that hostile foreign
nations are using the movement she leads to destabilize the country. 

There were no immediate details on the talks. 

In a rare interview, Suu Kyi said Tuesday that the military government may use
force to resolve its latest confrontation with the opposition, possibly
banning her party. 

``This government always believes in violence and the use of force to resolve
problems,'' the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told journalists. ``They never
think of resolving problems through negotiations, through reasonable give and
take.'' 

Suu Kyi, 53, who has spent most of the past decade under house arrest or close
restriction, said that the opposition in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is more
united than at any time since abortive elections in 1990. 

Her party overwhelmingly won the elections, but the military, which has ruled
since 1962, refused to honor the result. In the past few weeks, the NLD has
threatened to finally convene the legislature on its own. 

The government has responded by threatening long prison terms and banning the
party. Suu Kyi said both were ``quite possible'' and that five members of the
parliament had been detained in the past two weeks. 

She accused the government of destroying the economy and being insincere in
its expressed willingness to hold a dialogue with the opposition.