NEWS - Myanmar dissidents say 33 st

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar dissidents say 33 students held

Myanmar dissidents say 33 students held

  
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. 

05:23 08-16-99