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Reuters-Myanmar reopens closed medi



Subject: Reuters-Myanmar reopens closed medical institutes

Myanmar reopens closed medical institutes
06:18 a.m. Jan 05, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government on Tuesday said it
had reopened four medical institutes -- three in the capital Yangon and one
in Mandalay -- after closing them down for about two years.

Undergraduate classes in the four institutes and in another two dozen other
universities and colleges nationwide were suspended a few days before
qualifying examinations in mid-December 1996 amid anti-government
demonstrations by thousands of students.

The universities and colleges were briefly opened in September 1998 to hold
examinations for students.

Political analysts in Yangon believed that the reopening of the institutes
by the government could be an experiment to test the atmosphere for
reopening other institutes of higher learning.

``Institute of Medicine-I (Yangon), Institute of Medicine (2) (Yangon),
Institute of Medicine (Mandalay) and Institute of Dental Medicine (Yangon)
reopened with effect from January 5, 1999,'' a statement from the defence
ministry's Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) said, without giving further
details.

The OSS is the spokesman for the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

Officials of the reopened institutes were not immediately available for
comment on the situation at their campuses on Tuesday. But witnesses said
the atmosphere was calm.

About 5,000 students are enrolled at the four institutes.