Reuters-Six Myanmar heroic students

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Subject: Reuters-Six Myanmar heroic students said held over leaflets 

Six Myanmar students said held over leaflets
04:38 a.m. Aug 31, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Myanmar dissidents in exile said on Tuesday
their country's military rulers had arrested six high school students last
week for distributing pamphlets calling on people to join an anti-government
uprising on September 9.

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front said the six were arrested last
Friday in the capital, Yangon.

Dissidents in exile say more than 150 people have been detained in the past
month over their call for an anti-government revolt on September 9, 1999 --
the so-called ``four nines day.''

Dissidents chose four-nines day for its numerical significance after ``four
eights day'' -- August 8, 1988 -- when democracy activists launched an
uprising which was crushed by the military. Thousands were killed.

The Students' Democratic Front said authorities in Yangon had tightened
security at schools and called an unscheduled two-week holiday for schools
and colleges from the start of September.

The group said last week that 29 students, most of high-school age, who took
part in an anti-government protest in the southern town of Mergui on August
12 had been charged under an emergency law and faced seven years' jail with
hard labour.

The government has said it has arrested 36 people in connection with the
uprising call. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
the dissidents' latest statement.

On Monday, the government said the call for an uprising was an ``exercise in
futility'' and accused Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate who
leads the main opposition party, of acting recklessly in voicing support for
the campaign.

``While there is no reason to doubt her protestation that her party did not
mastermind the four-nines campaign, she cannot be absolved of
responsibility,'' it said in a statement.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Myanmar's last election in 1990
by a landslide but was never allowed to govern. She was held under house
arrest for six years to 1995.

Political analysts say the military is better prepared for trouble than in
1988 and they doubt ordinary people will be willing to risk their lives
again in open street protests.