Protesting students leave campus am

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Protesting students leave campus amid heavy security

                             The Associated Press
                           09/02/98 5:48 PM Eastern

              YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Nearly 500 students protested
              at a university in Myanmar's capital Wednesday, prompting
              the military government to deploy riot troops.

              The protesters at Yangon Institute of Technology dispersed
              after an apparent agreement among students, school
              authorities and government officials.

              While the demonstrators indicated many of their grievances
              were about exam procedures, students have been the
              vanguard of political unrest in Myanmar and the government
              often sees student protests as a cover for the pro-democracy
              opposition.

              The campus had been closed since the last wave of student
              protests two years ago. It reopened recently to permit
              students to study and take their long-postponed final exams.

              Hundreds of students began marching inside the locked gates
              of the campus Wednesday morning.

              Traffic police quickly closed major roads. Riot police with
              clubs and shields were deployed nearby, but did not enter
              the campus. The students did not attempt to march in the
              streets.

              Spectators outside could see professors negotiating to end
              the protest. Among the student's demands was more time to
              study for the exams.

              By late afternoon, an agreement apparently was reached and
              the students were allowed to leave. Parents were let through
              police lines to wait for their children, but the roads stayed
              closed to typical traffic.

              The institute sent the students home and none of them were
              arrested, according to a government fax to The Associated
              Press in Bangkok, Thailand.

              Also Wednesday, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
              met diplomats at the residence of U.S. Charge d'Affaires
              Kent Weidemann. No details were released on the talks.

              The meeting could antagonize Myanmar's government, which
              feels hostile nations are using Suu Kyi's party, the National
              League for Democracy, to destabilize the country.

              In an interview Tuesday with foreign journalists, Suu Kyi
              expressed support for a string of recent student protests
              against Myanmar's military.

              "Considering the amount of repression and the amount of
              surveillance to which the students are subjected, the fact
that
              they managed to get these demonstrations going one after the
              other showed a certain amount of organization and resolve,"
              she said.

              Suu Kyi, 53, has spent most of the past decade under house
              arrest or close restriction in Myanmar, also known as
              Burma.