Myanmar junta closes Yangon schools

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar junta closes Yangon schools
Mon 17 Aug 98 - 11:00 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 17 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta Monday closed all schools in Yangon
in apparent preparation for university examinations to be held, foreign
diplomats said.

It was not immediately clear if schools outside the capital were also
closed, and junta officials could not be reached for comment.



"The kids showed up for school and were just sent home," one western
diplomat said, adding there had been no notice of the closures.



The government has for several weeks been advising some, but not all,
university students they could sit exams Tuesday for the first time since
universities were closed following campus unrest in December 1996.



Howver, the exams were to be held at certain schools and other facilities
across the country in what diplomats said was a bid to avoid students
gathering at campuses or travelling to Yangon.



"Not every school is a test centre," another foreign diplomat said, adding
"the word is they are not going to open till mid next week."



The exams are to take place in an atmosphere of escalating tension just
days before an August 21 deadline set by the leading National League for
Democracy (NLD) opposition party for authorities to convene parliament or
face unspecified consequences.



The NLD-led opposition won 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta has
refused to relinquish power.



The Thailand-based opposition All Burma Students Democratic Front,
meanwhile, said students involved in the 1996 unrest had been excluded from
the new exams. The claim could not be independently verified.