[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Reuters-ANALYSIS-Myanmar govt strug



ANALYSIS-Myanmar govt struggles with students 
03:27 a.m. Sep 03, 1998 Eastern 

By David Brunnstrom 

BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A decade after shooting student protesters off
the streets to end a pro-democracy uprising, Myanmar's military is
struggling to contain yet another generation of youthful adversaries. 

The military government has kept universities closed for most of the past
decade to prevent a resurgence of student unrest and hands down long jail
terms to political opponents. 

But each time the campuses reopen, protests follow. 

Last month, the Yangon Institute of Technology (YIT) reopened its campus
for the first time since late 1996 to allow for short refresher courses
ahead of final examinations. 

On Wednesday, thousands of students there risked arrest by staging the
biggest anti-government protests the country has seen for years,
Yangon-based diplomats said. They followed smaller student protests in the
city last month. 

The students' anger on Wednesday was directed in part against government
plans to split up their campus and relocate future classes far from the
existing northern Yangon site. 

Diplomats said the government's aim was part of a long-term plan it began
after 1988's uprising to ensure that large numbers of students were not
concentrated in urban areas. 

They said the government has been building two new campuses for YIT, one at
Hlaingthayar, about 45 minutes drive from downtown Yangon, and another at
Sinde, between Yangon and Mandalay. 

``The plan is that there should be three campuses. One would stay in town
for students they are less worried about -- people doing evening classes
and post-graduates,'' a diplomat said. 

``The student population who have traditionally caused problems --
undergraduates and so on -- would be moved out so they can't meet and
demonstrate downtown. If they demonstrate in the sticks somewhere it
doesn't get the same sort of attention.'' 

Diplomats said the military planners had also thought to ensure campuses
were built on the far side of bridges. 

``It seems to be a key thing as you can shut bridges very easily,'' one
said. 

Relocation of the campuses meant the government could repossess university
land, which was prime city real estate, the diplomat said. 

University campuses have been centres of anti-government activity ever
since British colonial times. The country's independence movement grew out
of a student strike in 1920. 

The tradition continued during military rule in the 1960s and 1970s and
exploded with a vengeance in 1988. 

Opposition supporters say the military killed several thousand people that
year to put down an uprising for democracy sparked by police handling of a
fight involving YIT students. 

Diplomats said it was unclear if the current round of student protests
would escalate, but they thought it unlikely for now that ordinary people
would be willing to risk joining in, despite worsening economic conditions.


``My feeling is that these particular protests are unlikely to cause an
escalation,'' a third diplomat said. ``There is no real feeling that people
are going to start turning out in the streets in volume like they did in
1988.'' 

However, opponents of military rule have become increasingly assertive in
recent months and the government will have to tread carefully to avoid more
unrest. 

The student protests have come as the main opposition party, the National
League for Democracy, has stepped up its campaign to force the military to
recognise the results of the country's last election in 1990, which the
party won by a landslide. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular NLD leader who won the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize, has vowed to convene a ``People's Parliament'' this month as the
military had ignored demands to do so. 

In the August demonstrations, the protesters handed out leaflets supporting
the NLD plan, although the party has denied any link to the students. 

The government has warned the NLD it could be outlawed if it goes ahead
with its plan and says the armed forces could not stand idly by if the
party stirred up unrest.