29 Myanmar Students Said Charged

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

29 Myanmar Students Said Charged 
Friday, August 27, 1999; 11:47 a.m. EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Exiled dissidents claimed Friday that 29 high
school students in Myanmar have been charged by the military regime for
chanting support for an anti-government uprising. 

The students face up to seven years imprisonment, possibly with hard labor,
for their role in the Aug. 12 protest in the southern town of Mergui,
according to the Thailand-based All Burma Students Democratic Front. 

There was no immediate reaction from the government, which last week said 19
people, including 17 students, had been ``called in for questioning'' after
the protest. 

The Front said the 29 students ranged in age from 14 to 23. 

Yangon has accused its opponents of a ``smear campaign'' to provoke unrest
in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The Front is made up largely of students
who fled the country after protests in 1988 were crushed in bloodshed. 

Opponents of the military regime are calling for people to take to the
streets on Sept. 9 -- or ``9-9-99'' -- which is seen as an auspicious time
to face up to the unelected rulers of this numerology obsessed country. 

However, there is little sign that people are prepared to risk a crackdown
like that which met the ``8-8-88'' protests 11 years ago, when Aung San Suu
Kyi was vaulted to the forefront of the democracy movement. She was later
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.