BURMA ARRESTS LEADER OF PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT
Mr.Death-By-Diversity...
...Says, "Hello, my brothers."The On-Going Burmese Civil War That Never Ends
...Says, "Hello, my brothers."RANGOON, Burma, Wednesday, October 23, 1996, (AP) - A leading memberof Burma's pro-democracy movement was reported arrested after students defiedthe military government and staged their largest protest in years.
Some 500 students campaigning against police brutality ended their protestpeacefully today and returned to their classrooms.
Students insisted that the rally was non-political, but a senior officialin Burma's military government said pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was suspected of inciting unrest.
A leading member of her movement, Kyi Maung, vice chairman of Burma's NationalLeague for Democracy, was arrested Tuesday night, Rangoon-based Westerndiplomats told The Associated Press in Bangkok, Thailand.
Government officials told reporters earlier that Kyi Maung had been seenmeeting with two engineering students hours before the demonstration.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, cited reliable sourcesfor the arrest report but the information could not be immediately confirmed.
The students dispersed early today after the six-hour, sit-down strike nearthe campus of Rangoon University, traditional site of student protests againstBurma's decades-old military rule. The site was about one mile from SuuKyi's home.
The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there wereno arrests.
Despite a lack of violence, it was unlikely that the protest signaled anew tolerance by the military government, which has responded harshly topolitical dissent.
Roadblocks leading to Suu Kyi's home, which had prevented customary weekendrallies for the past four weekends, had been lifted Monday. They were reimposedimmediately after the demonstration began.
The student demonstration took on significance because any defiance of themilitary regime, which took power in 1988 after violently suppressing pro-democracydemonstrations, is anathema to the generals who insist that law and orderprevail over democratic rights.
Chanting ``Are we united? Yes we are,'' Rangoon Institute of Technologystudents led the protest over an incident Sunday in which police arrestedand beat up students involved in a dispute with a restaurant owner.
The demonstrators dispersed after teachers told them that authorities hadagreed to take action against the officers.
Rangoon University and the Institute of Technology bustled with studentsattending classes today. And few people seemed to know about the protest,which occurred after most of the city had gone to bed.
Traditionally, students have been at the vanguard of political change inBurma, but have remained relatively quiet in the past few years.
A quarrel between students of the Rangoon Institute of Technology and localvillagers led to the 1988 uprising.
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