Burmese students march briefly out of campus .
Vithoon Amorn
RANGOON 1996-12-06
About 200 Burmese students marched briefly from troubled Yangon Institute of Technology in northern Rangoon on Friday towards the University of Yangon six km ( four miles ) away , and returned to their campus , witnesses said .
Seven truckloads of armed riot police and three fire engines were on standby at one of the junctions near the institute .
There were no clashes .
" They are now back in the YIT campus , " an institute official who declined to be identified told Reuters by telephone .
One of two roads leading to the University of Yangon from the institute had been closed by authorities .
But about 300 university students were still gathered outside the gates of their campus , witnesses said .
They were singing peacefully .
On Monday and Tuesday , students from the institute and the university launched protests against what they said was unfair handling by police of a brawl between some of their colleagues and restaurant owners in October .
On Tuesday and Wednesday , opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was restricted to her home by the military government to prevent her from being drawn into the protests .
She was allowed to move freely on Thursday .
The protest culminated at dawn on Tuesday with several hundred students being detained briefly by police in central Rangoon .
The street protests were the biggest seen in the capital since the student-led pro-democracry demonstrations of September 1988 when the junta crushed the uprising .
Thousands were killed or imprisoned .
Earlier on Friday some of the students , who were held briefly by police during the protests earlier this week , said they were still dissatisfied with the military government .
They told Reuters they were unhappy that the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council ( SLORC ) had not heeded their calls for the right to organise independent unions on campus .
" We still want government answers to our demands .
We want police punishment to be published in newspapers , " one student said .
But the students stressed their protests were non-political and they had no contact with Suu Kyi 's National League for Democracy ( NLD ) .
Suu Kyi , a Nobel laureate and daughter of independence hero Aung San , and key NLD officials have also denied any link with the students .
But they have said both parties had a " moral link " in that they were against police brutality and injustice .
The students also demanded the government announce punishments meted out to policemen who they said had manhandled students involved in a brawl with some restaurant owners near the Yangon institute in October .
The students appealed to the government not to close the institute because of their latest demonstration .
The institute was shut for nearly two years after the 1988 uprising .
On Friday , the road leading to Suu Kyi 's lakeside residence in central Rangoon remained closed by police .