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

Reuters-FOCUS-Myanmar dissidents sa



Subject: Reuters-FOCUS-Myanmar dissidents say 33 students held 

FOCUS-Myanmar dissidents say 33 students held
05:23 a.m. Aug 16, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Myanmar dissident group said on Monday the
ruling military had detained 33 students, most of them of high-school age,
for demonstrating in the far south of the country last week.

Aung Thu Nyein, general-secretary of the All Burma Students' Democratic
Front (ABSDF) said the detentions in the town of Mergui were part of a
crackdown to prevent mass civil unrest that dissidents have called for next
month.

They were in addition to the arrest of about 120 activists his group
reported last weekend.

The government said some students were being questioned by authorities after
an incident in Mergui but gave no numbers.

Aung Thu Nyein said the 33 students, aged 14-23, were detained in the town
after about 150 staged an hour-long demonstration there last Thursday. He
said they faced charges under Myanmar's Emergency Provisions Act, which
carried a minimum seven-year jail sentence.

``They are undergoing interrogation, I think some will be charged and others
released,'' he told Reuters.

A government statement said some high school students in Mergui were being
questioned by local authorities and their school faculties after ``a small
group of people attempted to create civil unrest by agitating the
students.''

It said the agitators escaped and the purpose of the questioning was to
``expose and prevent the agitators from exploiting school children for their
vested interest.''

On Sunday, the government said the earlier ABSDF report on the detention of
120 dissidents was ``fabricated and blown out of proportion'' and accused
dissidents of a ``smear campaign.''

An ABSDF statement said the Mergui protests were for adequate supplies of
text books, releases of student prisoners, rights to form a union and also
against high school fees.

Students also chanted slogans in support of a general uprising, which
dissident groups in exile have called for on ``four-nines day'' -- September
9, 1999.

The government said last week it had arrested four people after exposing a
conspiracy to incite an uprising on September 9, including two members of
the ABSDF and two members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the
main opposition party.

Dissidents chose September 9 for its numerical significance after
``four-eights day'' -- August 8, 1988 -- which marked the start of a
student-led pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

The ABSDF is made up of students who fled to the Thai-Myanmar border from
the bloody military suppression of that uprising.

Anti-government sentiment remains strong in Myanmar but the military has
kept a tight rein on dissent since ignoring the result of a 1990 election
the NLD won by a huge margin.

The government has halted many university classes for much of the past
decade to prevent a resurgence of student activism.