SPECIAL POSTING : Myanmar says stud

[mg_myanmar@xxxxxxxxx]

Subject: SPECIAL POSTING : Myanmar says student exiles welcome to return

Myanmar says student exiles welcome to return 

YANGON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Myanmar's intelligence chief said the military government is ``worried'' about students who fled the country to escape the bloody suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 and would welcome their return. 

The official Myanma News Agency quoted the powerful Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt as saying the students fled because of the ``instigation of destructive elements.'' 

``The government still welcomes them with open arms,'' he said at the conclusion of a refresher course for teachers in Yangon on Sunday. ``The government is worried that they will continue to fall prey to the temptations of destructive elements.'' 

Several thousand university age students fled to neighbouring Thailand after the military government killed thousands of people to crush a student-led pro-democracy uprising in 1988. 

Khin Nyunt said it ``is now necessary to get rid of the national traitors, who, by relying on external elements, are trying to make the future of the state fade away by spiritually spoiling the youths.'' 

The military government uses the terms ``national traitors'' and ``destructive elements'' to refer to opponents, including the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party, and armed ethnic minority groups battling for greater autonomy. 


Since 1988, Myanmar student dissidents have been a persistent thorn in the side of the military, joining forces with ethnic rebel groups fighting the Yangon government and waging a propaganda war from Thailand against authoritarian rule. 

While Thailand has tolerated their presence for the past 11 years, it called for the speeding up of their resettlement in third countries after a group of armed dissidents took over the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in early October. 

Thai-Myanmar ties were badly strained when Thai authorities allowed the five attackers to go free to a safe border area when they released 89 hostages held for 25 hours unharmed. 

More than 2,000 dissidents who fled Myanmar to Thailand after the 1988 crackdown have already been resettled in the United States, Canada, Australia, England and Sweden. About another 2,000 still live in Thailand or in border areas. 

Myanmar has kept universities and colleges closed for much of the past 11 years to prevent a resurgence of student activism. 

Last week the government said 75 percent of classes had already restarted and arrangements were underway to reopen those remaining when the new academic year restarted in April.
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Mg Myanmar
A Myanmar citizen who loves Myanmar

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