Exiled students tell Myanmar to ope

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Exiled students tell Myanmar to open universities

BANGKOK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The exiled All Burma Federation of Students' Union
(ABFSU) on Thursday challenged the Myanmar (Burma) military junta to reopen
universities shut in December 1996 after widespread anti-government street
protests by undergraduates. 

The group made the call after official Myanmar media reported that the
powerful Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, had said the government was arranging
the reopening of closed colleges. 

The official did not give a timeframe for the reopening in media reports on
Wednesday. 

About 30 universities and colleges were shut by the government to prevent the
student unrest from growing into civil unrest in December 1996. 

The ABFSU said in a statement that it wanted the SPDC to also give students
the right to openly form a committee for the protection of students' rights. 

``We are demanding the immediate reopening of universities and schools,'' Aung
Moe Zaw, an executive member of the ABFSU now living just across the border in
Thailand, told Reuters. 

ABFSU said it was sceptical about Khin Nyunt's remarks, but still demanded
that the SPDC allow about 150 expelled students to rejoin universities and to
release over 1,000 student activists detained by the junta since 1988, when
the military seized power. 

``ABFSU doesn't believe that the rights and needs of the students will be met
when the universities are reopened, so we make the following demands in order
to avoid re-closure of universities,'' it said. 

The group also demanded the unconditional release of student prisoners,
including ABFSU chaiman Min Ko Naing, who has been detained since 1988.
^REUTERS@