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AFP-Myanmar authorities clamp down



Subject: AFP-Myanmar authorities clamp down on student unrest

Myanmar authorities clamp down on student unrest
BANGKOK, Aug 17 (AFP) - Myanmar's ruling military said Tuesday it had taken
measures to prevent student unrest in townships around the country following
a protest in the southern town of Mergui.
Exiled Myanmar dissidents said some 30 high school students, some as young
as 14 and 15 years old, had been detained by authorities in the coastal
town, 485 kilometers (300 miles) south of Yangon, after taking part in an
anti-government demonstration.

The Thailand-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said in a
statement the youths were detained on August 12.

During the one-hour protest some 150 pupils marched in the streets chanting
anti-junta slogans, it said. They also demanded the release of detained
students and permission to set up a student union.

The demonstrators denounced the junta for the closure of universities since
1996 and chanted "march ahead to the 9/9/99 movement," a reference to
dissident plans for a popular uprising next month.

A junta spokesman acknowleged the demonstration had taken place and blamed
"a small group of people for agitating students from one of the high schools
in the town."

"Some of the students from that high school are being questioned by school
faculties and parents together with local township authorities," the
spokesman said in a statement sent to AFP.

He said similar measures were now being taken in other towns "to prevent
political extremists and unscrupulous elements from disrupting the the
children's education and creating civil unrest."

Exiled pro-democracy activists based in Bangkok have been calling for a mass
uprising against the junta on September 9, a day of numerical significance
for many Burmese.

August 8 marked the 11th anniversary of a popular uprising in 1988, or
8/8/88, in which hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were gunned down
and a junta took power from dictator General Ne Win.

"We are seriously concerned about the plight of the arrested students in
Mergui and demand the military release them immediately," the ABSDF's
secretary general Aung Thu Nyein said in the statement.

"They honestly expressed the basic suffering of the students and (the junta)
should not take action against them," he added.

On Sunday the junta, responding to reports of a renewed crackdown, accused
its opponents of mounting a "smear campaign" against the government ahead of
the next meeting of the UN General Assembly.

Exiled Myanmar students over the weekend said some 120 pro-democracy
activists had been arrested in the past two weeks in an effort to quell the
planned pro-democracy uprising next month.

On Friday, Myanmar's military rulers said they had uncovered a plan to
instigate a massive uprising next month and warned of firm action against
activists.

A military spokesman confirmed the detention of two ABSDF members and two
members of the main opposition National League for Democracy party.