ONE THOUSAND DEMONSTRATE IN ARAKAN

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Media Release
Date: January 28, 1998
  
       
          ONE THOUSAND DEMONSTRATE IN ARAKAN STATE             
                                    

About 1,000 people, including high school students, held a
demonstration last Friday in a town in Arakan State in western
Burma, to protest against the actions of three local policemen,
according to an ABSDF source.
  
The demonstration occurred on Friday January 23, 1998, and
involved students from No. 1 State High School in Kyauk Phu
township in Arakan State.
  
The day before the demonstration, a student from the school was
involved in an incident with local policemen. The student and his
mother were riding a bicycle on the way to the night market when
they accidently hit a policeman. 
  
Both mother and son apologised many times, however the student
was violently beaten by three policemen, according to the local
source. The student was seriuosly injured in the attack and was
later hospitalised.
  
The following day about 150 students from the high school, who
were dissatisfied with the lack of action taken against the
policemen, staged a peaceful demonstration in town. According to
the source, other people in town joined the students in the
protest and the number of demonstrators swelled to more than one
thousand.
  
The demonstrators dispersed at about seven o'clock in the evening
after a compromise was reached between high school authorities
and the township police chief, the source said. During the
demonstration, the students demanded the following:
  
  1. that the authorities pay for the student's medical expenses
  2. that, if necessary, the authorities send the student to a   
     hospital in Rangoon 
  3. that the authorities introduce a regular flow of electricity
     to the town to enable students to study properly
  4. the abolition of the SPDC's new educational system
  5. that the authorities bring charges against the three   
     policemen who attacked the student
  6. that the authorities announce details of the incident the   
     the newspapers. 
    
  

Central Committee
All Burma Students' Democratic Front 
  
For further information please contact 01 654 4984.