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The Nation - Burmese Freedom fighte



Subject: The Nation - Burmese Freedom fighters claim six students arrested

The Nation - Sep 1, 1999.
Headlines
Burmese rebels claim six students arrested

BURMESE dissidents in exile said yesterday the Burmese military rulers
arrested six high school students last week for distributing pamphlets
calling on people to join an anti-government uprising on Sept 9.

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said the six were arrested
on Aug 27 in Rangoon.

ABSDF quoted sources inside Burma as saying that security at high schools in
the capital was tightened following persistent student protests in Tamwe
high school.

According to an ABSDF press release, local teachers have been assigned
duties to guard students and check for pro-democratic posters.

They have also been instructed to protect the military regime's propaganda
signboards, which have been placed in every school compound, from students
armed with stones and paint, ABSDF said.

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

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

The Students' Democratic Front said authorities in Rangoon 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 Aug 12
had been charged under an emergency law and faced seven years' jail with
hard labour.

The government said it had 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 Burma'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.

The Nation, Reuters