YANGON About 700 Myanmar students staged a sit-in protest at the campus of Yangon's Institute of Technology on Wednesday, shouting slogans demanding postponement of examinations, witnesses said. Roads leading to the campus were blocked, a diplomat contacted from Bangkok said. The campus is about 12 km (seven miles) north of the city centre. Yangon residents said the students had begun demonstrating at around 9:30 a.m. (0300 GMT). They said the protest appeared to be non-political but details were difficult to confirm as all roads to the area were closed. On August 24, students at the two institutes staged their first open street protests against the military government since 1996. Students chanted slogans calling for the downfall of the military government and gave out leaflets supporting the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and its vow to convene a parliament. Those protests were broken up by police. They came a few days after the government staged university finals examinations, despite the closure of Myanmar's universities since December 1996. The closure has brought higher education to a halt. Students preparing for the August 18 exams were forced to study at home in most cases. Universities have frequently been the site of anti-government protests in Myanmar. In 1988 many student protesters were killed near the Yangon University campus. (Reuter)