Burma releases detained student protesters

December 3, 1996

Web posted at: 11:10 a.m. EST (1610 GMT)

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RANGOON, Burma (CNN) -- Burma's military government said it briefly held hundreds of students Tuesday after they staged night-long street protests in the capital Rangoon.

More than 300 students were taken away just before sunrise in police trucks when they refused to disperse after a march through central Rangoon early on Tuesday.

"We have the power to fight for our democracy," students chanted prior to being taken into custody.

Police said they felt the demonstration, the largest of its kind in several years, was a threat to stability.

Hours later, police reimposed a blockade of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's home to prevent her supporters from going to meet her. During a live telephone interview, Suu Kyi told CNN she was unable to leave her home.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner called the situation "unlawful confinement" and said she had no connection with the student protesters.

The government began barring access to Suu Kyi's home in late September, just ahead of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's aborted national congress. The NLD won a 1990 election victory but has been barred from taking power by the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

The students were released after their papers were checked, a SLORC spokesman said. "They were not detained nor did they face any charges. They were simply held briefly to sort out whether they were real students or infiltrators," he said.

The protests began Monday with a sit-in by 1,500 students from Rangoon University and the Rangoon Institute of Technology and stretched into the night.

Their protest was aimed at police authorities after another smaller demonstration was broken up violently in October. The government promised then that it would investigate reports of police brutality. but the students say nothing has been done.

At one point overnight, when marchers paused in front of the Suli Pagoda -- Rangoon's holiest shrine -- a student hoisted a portrait of Gen. Aung San, Suu Kyi's father. Later, they came to the front gate of the U.S. Embassy.

The demonstrations were some of the largest since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Thousands were killed or imprisoned when the SLORC crushed the movement.

There were no reports of violence in the latest protests against Burma's military regime.

The United States and other Western countries have accused the SLORC of widespread human rights abuses and have condemned its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi.

A student leader said earlier that the student protesters were not linked to any political party and they had no intention of politicizing the protest.

Bangkok Bureau Chief Tom Mintier and Reuters contributed to this report.

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