ABSDF: RIT STUDENTS REFUSE TO LEAVE

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Media Release
September 16, 1998


         RIT STUDENTS REFUSE TO LEAVE HOSTELS UNTIL DEMANDS MET

Students at Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT) are refusing to
leave their hostels after the completion of exams, according to
sources in Rangoon.

1200 students living in Hlaing campus hostels will not leave the
hostels until their demands are met.  This comprises 70% of the
hostels' students. 

The students finished their examinations yesterday and staged a
demonstration inside the campus in the afternoon. They were
protesting the fact that they were required to sit their exams
without being allowed adequate preparation time.  Some refused to
sit their examinations in protest.

The students demanded that the authorities:
1)   neither arrest nor expel those RIT students who did not sit
their examinations,  
2)   reopen regular RIT classes,
3)   not relocate RIT classes to other campuses, and
4)   release all students recently arrested.

"The students are merely demanding the right to a decent
education," said All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF)
Foreign Affairs spokesman Aung Naing Oo.  "By suppressing the
rights and legitimate educational aspirations of students the
Burmese military is destroying the future of our country."

Riot police prevented the students from taking their
demonstration to the streets by sealing off the campus.  Security
forces have also reportedly been deployed around the campus.

So far, the hostels are continuing to provide food to the
students, but the military has warned the students that if they
do not leave the hostels within seven days it will use force to
evacuate them if necessary.

Military authorities have stated that they will move 4th year
students to a new campus outside the city, although no date has
yet been announced for the reopening of the university.

Meanwhile, four high school students arrested in relation to a
demonstration on September 9 in Tamwe township in Rangoon were
yesterday sentenced to five years imprisonment under the 1950
Emergency Provisions Act.

All Burma Students' Democratic Front

For further information contact 01 253 9082, 01 654 4984