NEWS - Myanmar exiles say 29 face s

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Subject: NEWS - Myanmar exiles say 29 face seven years hard labour

Myanmar exiles say 29 face seven years hard labour

  
BANGKOK, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Myanmar dissidents in exile said on Friday
that 29 students who took part in an anti-government protest earlier
this month had been charged under an emergency law and faced jail terms
of up to seven years with hard labour. 

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front said the 29 -- aged between 14
and 23 -- were arrested after a protest against the ruling military in
the southern Myanmar town of Mergui on August 12. 

It said another demonstration was reported to have occurred in the town
on August 16, when students demanded the release of those detained and
more were arrested. 

``We understand that several more were arrested but we don't know the
exact number,'' ABSDF general secretary Aung Thu Nyein told Reuters. 

Officials of Myanmar's military government were unavailable for
immediate comment. 

The government has said it arrested 36 people in connection with
activities to instigate unrest on September 9, 1999 -- the so-called
``four nines day'' -- when dissidents in exile have called for an
uprising against military rule. 

It said 19 people, including 17 high school students, were being
questioned in Mergui following the demonstration there. 

Dissident groups in exile say more than 150 people have been arrested
this month in connection with the uprising call. 

The dissidents picked four nines days for its numerical significance
after ``four eights day'' -- August 8, 1988 -- which saw the start of a
nationwide uprising for democracy crushed by the military that year. 

02:07 08-27-99