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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SMH - Concern for education
activists
THE IRISH TIMES - Reopening of Burma's
universities condemned
AP - Opposition leader says Myanmar's
military rulers are curbing university education
Reuters - Asian ministers meet on healthcare for
poor
Reuters - Myanmar hits back
at Suu Kyi on universities
AFP - Myanmar minister sacked over rare outburst against junta's policies AFP - Asian resort workers to be trained to nab child sex
tourists
AP - Myanmar Rulers
Control Students
AP -
Opposition Leader Says No Progress In
Myanmar Freedoms
Business Recorder - Direct import of lentils
from Myanmar cheaper
The Age - Democracy activists fear Burma
retribution
SCMP - BURMA - Reopening of universities 'a
surface job'
The Straits Times - Myanmar university re-openings "a sham'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sydney Morning Herald
Aug 23, 2000. Concern for education
activists
By CRAIG SKEHAN
Bangkok: Embassies in Rangoon have been asked to help prevent official
retaliation against Burmese democracy activists who participated in a rare
clandestine seminar attended by foreign supporters.
An Australian delegate, Ms Lucy Abbot, of the Burma Support Group, said the
overseas representatives had travelled secretly to Rangoon for Monday's
meeting.
But, she said, at one point up to 40 Burmese military intelligence
personnel were outside the venue, and locals warned that informers had been
planted inside.
"When we left they took photographs of participants and we were followed,"
she said.
About 200 people, including representatives of Burma's ethnic minorities,
students and the democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, discussed the strict
political controls on the country's education system.
Participants said they were worried that Burmese involved would be
persecuted through imprisonment, loss of employment or harassment of family
members.
They said security authorities at Rangoon international airport had seized
a "dummy" video tape of the meeting, while the real tape was shown yesterday at
a news conference in Bangkok.
In it, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was seen telling the seminar that the military
regime used education as a weapon.
"Education is not a right, it is conditional," the veteran democracy
campaigner said, in a reference to a requirement that students attending
universities recently reopened - some after more than a decade - sign a
statement of loyalty to the government.
Speakers said the 14 foreigners at the seminar were not detained because
the authorities wanted to minimise adverse publicity.
THE IRISH TIMES
Wednesday, August 23, 2000
Reopening of Burma's universities
condemned
By Sandy Barron BURMA: The reopening of universities in Burma by the country's military
rulers was condemned as a "sham" yesterday by an international group who
attended a oneday education forum chaired by Burmese opposition leader Ms Aung
San Suu Kyi in the capital, Rangoon.
Burma's ruling military regime, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), which has been widely condemned for shutting down the country's higher
education system five years ago, as well as for its human rights record,
announced the reopening of universities and colleges in July.
Pro-democracy opposition groups claim that only a few colleges have been
reopened on a part-time basis.
"It's purely a cosmetic exercise. We discovered that most colleges are
still shut. And students have to sign papers stating that they have no political
involvement," said Mr Martin Lacey of the Burma Action Ireland (BAI) campaign
group.
Mr Lacey was one of the 14 academics and activists from 10 countries who
attended the event at the National League for Democracy party's headquarters in
central Rangoon on Monday.
Mr Lacey praised the "courage" of the NLD members who spoke out at the
200-strong meeting which was monitored, as is customary, by members of the
regime's military intelligence. In the decade since the generals refused to
allow the results of 1990 elections won overwhelmingly by the NLD, thousands of
party members have been jailed, tortured and forced into exile.
At a press conference yesterday in Bangkok, the group echoed Ms Suu Kyi's
call to the international community to continue to support democratic reforms in
Burma that would lead to genuine education reform. "Democracy in Burma first,
and everything else follows," said Ms Suu Kyi in Rangoon. She has regularly
accused the military rulers of "sacrificing the future" of Burma's youth to
safeguard their hold on power.
There are few signs that the latest calls for reform will be heeded by the
generals, who have successfully fended off international pressure to change,
including sanctions, for more than a decade.
Recently, the SPDC received a boost as a result of an EU decision to allow
Burma to attend meetings between the EU and the Association of Southeast
Nations.
In Rangoon, on Monday, Mr Lacey presented Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the
Freedom of Dublin in March, with a brooch from Lord Mayor Maurice Ahern as well
as the words of a song written by U2's Bono, titled Walk On, which will appear
on the band's new album due in a few weeks.
WIRE:08/22/2000 16:49:00 ET
Opposition leader says Myanmar's military rulers are curbing university education BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _
Myanmar"s military rulers have reopened the country"s universities after 3{
years, but are keeping students under tight control by making them pledge their
loyalty to the government and barring political activity, said pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The reopening of the universities "is a mere surface
job to make people think that there has been progress" on democratic rights in
Myanmar, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in a videotaped statement smuggled
out of the country by human rights activists and shown to reporters in Bangkok
on Tuesday. "But in fact there has been no progress." Myanmar"s rulers allowed
full resumption of higher education on July 24. They closed down campuses to
stop anti-government demonstrations in December 1996. The 14 activists, who
included academics, journalists, youth workers and students from 10 countries,
joined 200 Suu Kyi supporters at a workshop Monday in the Myanmar capital of
Yangon to discuss the state of education in the country, also known as Burma.
The workshop was held at the headquarters of Suu Kyi"s opposition party, the
National League for Democracy, whose activities are kept under close scrutiny by
the government, especially when they involve foreign visitors and journalists.
The party won general elections in 1990, but the military regime never allowed
it to form a government. Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize. Activists said
the government did not try to disrupt the workshop, but security officials at
the airport searched them and confiscated one videotape, not realizing it was
blank. Students have been politically active in Myanmar since the days of
British colonial rule earlier this century. They spearheaded an uprising that
almost toppled the military in 1988. Thousands of protesters were gunned down.
Students were being allowed to enroll after signing a declaration that they will
stay away from political activities and be loyal to the government. Student
unions and other student organizations are banned. "Education is a
conditionality, not a right in Myanmar," said Christine Weima Lager, a youth
worker from Norway. "If you want education you have to give up your political
rights." Lager and the other activists said political science is not a subject
in the universities. Suu Kyi urged student movements around the world to force
their governments to pressure Myanmar"s rulers into freeing the campuses. "We
would like ... the student community to think of education in Burma as part of
our broader political problem," she said.
WIRE:08/23/2000 03:46:00 ET
Asian ministers meet on healthcare for poor KATHMANDU, Aug 23 (Reuters) -
Health ministers from eight Asian countries began a three-day meeting in Nepal
on Wednesday to seek ways to provide inexpensive healthcare to the poor,
officials said. They will debate health sector reforms, rationalising resources
and the problem of HIV/AIDS at the regional meeting sponsored by the World
Health Organisation (WHO). Ministers from Bhutan, India, Indonesia, the
Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea and Thailand and representatives from
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are attending the meeting. Uton Muchtar Rafei, WHO
regional director for Southeast Asia, said the countries, home to 1.5 billion
people, must reform their health sectors to provide affordable healthcare to the
40 percent of the world"s poor who live in them. He said tuberculosis and
malaria had re-emerged as significant health threats, cancer and cardiovascular
diseases were causing serious public health concerns while new diseases like
HIV/AIDS were adding to pressures on medical infrastructure. The WHO official
said widespread poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and the low status of women
hampered health development in the region. The World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) had substantially stepped up assistance for health sector
programmes and projects in developing countries, he said.
WIRE:08/23/2000 09:02:00 ET
Myanmar hits back at Suu Kyi on universities YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) -
Myanmar"s military government said Wednesday it regretted comments by opposition
figurehead and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who said earlier this week the
reopening of universities in the country was a sham. Suu Kyi, whose National
League for Democracy (NLD) won elections in May 1990 by a landslide but has
never been allowed to govern, said in a rare interview that education in Myanmar
could not make progress until the country achieved democracy. But in a
statement, the government insisted it was committed to both education and
democracy. "It is quite regretful that the NLD has taken the stance of
condemning and criticizing the government of Myanmar"s endeavors in encouraging
students to peacefully pursue their education without being sidetracked and
exploited by certain quarters with vested interests," it said. "While the
government of Myanmar warmly appreciates constructive advice and criticism from
the local and international community, criticizing and condemning others merely
for the sake of engaging in the act of confrontation should be totally avoided."
In a videotaped interview in Yangon Monday, Suu Kyi urged the world"s students
to put pressure on their governments to push for democracy in the former Burma.
"The consensus of opinion is that the universities have been reopened because of
pressure, external and internal, and this is a mere surface job to make people
think that there has been progress," she said. "But in fact there has been no
progress. The students have been made to give undertakings to the effect that
they will not engage in politics, in short that they will do whatever the
authorities require them to do." Last month around 60,000 Myanmar students
restarted classes with the reopening of campuses shut down more than three years
ago after pro-democracy rallies. Yangon"s ruling generals ordered the closure of
more than 30 universities and colleges a few days before final examinations in
December 1996 after student demonstrations at campuses and on the streets of the
capital. In its statement Wednesday, the government said it had taken several
steps to improve education, including upgrading facilities, training teachers
and raising their salaries by 500 percent. "It is undeniable that a developing
country like Myanmar faces many difficulties and challenges during its
transition from a one-party socialism to a multi-party democracy," it said. "But
education being a national priority, the government has been investing more and
more in schools, not only to open the doors of learning to all but also to
obtain higher standards and better quality of learning."
Wednesday, August 23 2:17 PM SGT
Myanmar minister sacked over rare outburst against junta's policies YANGON, Aug 23 (AFP) -
Myanmar's deputy planning and economy minister Zaw Tun has been sacked for
making a scathing public attack on the junta which he accused of covering up the
appalling state of the nation's economy, sources said.
In an official speech delivered on July 7 the outspoken Zaw Tun said the
military's policies "lacked transparency and consistency" and were aimed
primarily at cementing its iron grip on the nation.
"Carrying on with a planned economy after announcing a free-market economy
is a manifestation of no success," he was quoted as saying at a business
seminar.
The junta's first secretary Khin Nyunt has said that Myanmar's economy grew
by 10 percent in the last financial year to March, but Zaw Tun said it actually
stood closer to six percent.
"In reality, the GDP growth was around six percent if calculated on the
three basic factors of production, expenditure and income," he said.
The government, anxious to maintain an impression of double-digit growth,
were calculating GDP based only on production, he said.
"When military commanders were ordered to compile GDP, the data included
the value of seized goods as well as taxes at the municipal market which were
full of inaccuracies," he said.
He recounted an incident where a divisional commander who had attended a
coordination meeting where GDP was discussed phoned up two weeks later to
enthusiastically report that GDP in his jurisdiction had shot up
five-fold.
"It is a case of killing me softly with the system," Zaw Tun quipped in the
speech.
His criticism cost him his job on August 10, and he was also stripped of
his home and other benefits that came with his job and military rank of
Brigadier General, sources in Yangon told AFP.
The sacking has not been officially announced.
"It's a pity because what he said made a lot of sense," one resident
diplomat said, adding that the news of his dismissal was no surprise.
"We always found him to be quite candid and outspoken whenever we had
occasion to meet with him and this was rather refreshing."
The opposition Democratic Voice of Burma radio, monitored in London, said
the sacking was part of an ongoing purge within the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) leadership which was causing unease among the military
ranks.
It said Zaw Tun had taken his sacking philosophically and bade farewell
with the parting shot: "I am the poorest among the generals."
The generals who rule Myanmar are widely accused of having little idea how
to run an economy.
The result is a primitive and informal system propped up by barter and a
pervasive black market in everything from currency to gasoline.
Myanmar's currency, the kyat, this month spiraled to an all-time low
against the dollar, triggering fears of a major government anti-inflation
intervention in the economy.
On the black market, the truest indicator of the value of the currency, the
kyat is now valued at about 400 to the dollar.
Physical signs of the decaying economy are obvious. Power cuts are a daily
headache for residents of Yangon and other cities and prices rise and fall
dramatically throughout the year.
Foreign investment has all but dried up owing to the Asian financial crisis
and the stigma attached to investing in a country blamed by the West for serious
human rights abuses.
Myanmar's ruling junta frequently blames its economic woes on external
influences and political foes such as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy party.
Wednesday, August 23 7:40 PM SGT
Asian resort workers to be trained to nab child sex tourists BANGKOK, Aug 23 (AFP) - Asian
nations battling to curb the flourishing child sex tourism industry will train
holiday resort workers to identify and report foreign paedophiles under a scheme
proposed Wednesday.
"It is critical to train these 'frontline' staff because they are usually
the ones to see an abusive situation about to happen," said Christine Beddoe
from End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT).
Taxi drivers and tour guides were often the first point of contact for
paedophiles after they arrived in Asia, she said.
"They are frequently approached by sex offenders who are searching for
children to abuse. So when that happens it's really important that they know
what to do."
Representatives from tourism authorities in Cambodia, the Philippines,
Vietnam and Thailand -- all hotspots for child sex tourism -- have agreed to set
up training programs for frontline staff, she said.
The tourism authority officials were in the Thai capital for a UN-sponsored
conference which heard that the number of Asian children being abused by foreign
paedophiles has soared over the last few years.
The region's financial crisis forced many more youngsters into poverty and
made them vulnerable to paedophiles who are swarming into resorts across Asia
and the Pacific islands of Fiji and Samoa.
Beddoe said that while sex tourists were often brazen in their abuse of
children, the pool attendants, receptionists and housekeeping staff who
witnessed their activities rarely knew who to report them to.
The law enforcement and child protection infrastructure in many Asian
countries was also frequently inadequate, she said.
"At the moment, if you ring the police you are not likely to get through to
a child protection specialist.
"We want to bring the government and non-government expertise in the child
protection field in contact with the tourism industry," she said.
Delegates from travel and tour companies at the conference said their staff
had benefitted enormously from training sessions aimed at boosting awareness of
child abuse in holiday resorts.
"A lot of us went around seeing this sort of thing before but never knew
what to do," said Intrepid Travel's Carl Needham, whose company leads trekking
tours to the hill tribe regions of Thailand and Myanmar.
"We've had reports from local guides who say there have been people up
there offering to buy the local children, so we reported that to ECPAT.
"We also had an incident on one of our trips where a man was behaving
suspiciously around sex bars. We decided to keep him in the trip so there was
someone to keep an eye on him and then he was reported to ECPAT as well."
Needham said it was crucial to boost the confidence of Asian tourism
industry workers who often feared the consequences of challenging a foreign
paedophile.
"We make sure our guides know that it is okay to say no to clients.
Culturally they are very reluctant to say no even if they don't like what they
are being asked to do," he said.
Beddoe said other strategies to combat child sex tourism discussed during
the conference included a proposal to set up a blacklist of tourism
organisations or businesses which encouraged or tolerated child sex
tourism.
Governments, many of whom have been slow to prosecute offenders, must be
persuaded to act more decisively, she said.
"Child sex tourism has been a worsening problem in Asia for many years and
it's not going away," she said.
Paedophiles are turning to the Internet to lure children and exchange
information between themselves, and more children are being trafficked along
new, more effective routes, she said.
ECPAT will now begin to lobby governments and the tourism industry for
funds to implement the new training programs across Asia.
Tuesday August 22 4:59 PM ET
Myanmar Rulers Control Students By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -
Myanmar's military rulers have reopened the country's universities after 31/2
years, but are keeping students under tight control by making them pledge their
loyalty to the government and barring political activity, said pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The reopening of the universities ``is a mere surface job to make people
think that there has been progress'' on democratic rights in Myanmar, the Nobel
Peace Prize winner said in a videotaped statement smuggled out of the country by
human rights activists and shown to reporters in Bangkok on Tuesday. ``But in
fact there has been no progress.''
Myanmar's rulers allowed full resumption of higher education on July 24.
They closed down campuses to stop anti-government demonstrations in December
1996.
The 14 activists, who included academics, journalists, youth workers and
students from 10 countries, joined 200 Suu Kyi supporters at a workshop Monday
in the Myanmar capital of Yangon to discuss the state of education in the
country, also known as Burma.
The workshop was held at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's opposition party,
the National League for Democracy, whose activities are kept under close
scrutiny by the government, especially when they involve foreign visitors and
journalists.
The party won general elections in 1990, but the military regime never
allowed it to form a government. Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize.
Activists said the government did not try to disrupt the workshop, but
security officials at the airport searched them and confiscated one videotape,
not realizing it was blank.
Students have been politically active in Myanmar since the days of British
colonial rule earlier this century. They spearheaded an uprising that almost
toppled the military in 1988. Thousands of protesters were gunned down.
Students were being allowed to enroll after signing a declaration that they
will stay away from political activities and be loyal to the government. Student
unions and other student organizations are banned.
``Education is a conditionality, not a right in Myanmar,'' said Christine
Weima Lager, a youth worker from Norway. ``If you want education you have to
give up your political rights.''
Lager and the other activists said political science is not a subject in
the universities.
Suu Kyi urged student movements around the world to force their governments
to pressure Myanmar's rulers into freeing the campuses.
``We would like ... the student community to think of education in Burma as
part of our broader political problem,'' she said.
Wednesday, August 23 6:03 AM SGT
Opposition Leader Says No Progress In Myanmar Freedoms BANGKOK (AP)--Myanmar's
military rulers have reopened the country's universities after 3 1/2 years, but
are keeping students under tight control by making them pledge their loyalty to
the government and barring political activity, said pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.
The reopening of the universities "is a mere surface job to make people think that there has been progress" on democratic rights in Myanmar, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in a videotaped statement smuggled out of the country by human rights activists and shown to reporters in Bangkok on Tuesday. "But in fact there has been no progress." Myanmar's rulers allowed full resumption of higher education on July 24.
They closed down campuses to stop anti-government demonstrations in December
1996.
The 14 activists, who included academics, journalists, youth workers and
students from 10 countries, joined 200 Suu Kyi supporters at a workshop Monday
in the Myanmar capital of Yangon to discuss the state of education in the
country, also known as Burma.
The workshop was held at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's opposition party,
the National League for Democracy, whose activities are kept under close
scrutiny by the government, especially when they involve foreign visitors and
journalists.
The party won general elections in 1990, but the military regime never
allowed it to form a government. Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize.
Activists said the government did not try to disrupt the workshop, but
security officials at the airport searched them and confiscated one videotape,
not realizing it was blank.
Students have been politically active in Myanmar since the days of British
colonial rule earlier this century. They spearheaded an uprising that almost
toppled the military in 1988. Thousands of protesters were gunned down.
Students were being allowed to enroll after signing a declaration that they
will stay away from political activities and be loyal to the government. Student
unions and other student organizations are banned.
"Education is a conditionality, not a right in Myanmar," said Christine
Weima Lager, a youth worker from Norway. "If you want education you have to give
up your political rights."
Lager and the other activists said political science is not a subject in
the universities.
Suu Kyi urged student movements around the world to force their governments
to pressure Myanmar's rulers into freeing the campuses.
"We would like ... the student community to think of education in Burma as
part of our broader political problem," she said.
Business Recorder
Direct import of lentils from Myanmar cheaper KARACHI (August 22) : The price of lentils for Pakistani importers can be much cheaper if directly imported from Myanmar, says an official report here on Monday. At present, Pakistan is importing goods including lentils from Myanmar via Singapore through third party arrangement. A report compiled by the Pakistani embassy said that vast opportunities existed for the trade promotion between the two countries for direct trade. It said that Myanmar occupies important position in the region but trade relations with Pakistan are limited and for various reasons the volume has remained insignificant in the past. While identifying various products. for exports and imports, the report said that bright prospect existed for enhancing trade with Myanmar. It said Pakistan can directly import lentils from Myanmar while it can export medicines to this highly prospective market in the region. Pakistani businessmen can also invest in Myanmar as it is offering attractive incentives to foreign investors, the report concluded.-APP The Age
WORLD NEWS ASIA PACIFIC Democracy activists fear Burma retribution By CRAIG SKEHAN
SOUTH-EAST CORRESPONDENT BANGKOK Wednesday 23 August 2000 Foreign embassies in Rangoon have been asked to help prevent official
recriminations against Burmese democracy activists who participated in a rare
clandestine seminar attended by foreign supporters.
Australian delegate Lucy Abbot, from the Burma Support Group, said overseas
representatives travelled secretly to Rangoon for Monday's meeting.
She said that at one point up to 40 military intelligence agents were in
the street outside the venue and locals warned that informers had been planted
inside.
"When we left they took photographs of participants and we were followed,"
Ms Abbot said.
About 200 people, including representatives of Burma's ethnic minorities,
students and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, discussed strict political
controls on the country's education system. Participants said they were worried
that Burmese people who were involved would be subjected to persecution such as
imprisonment, loss of employment or harassment.
They said security authorities at Rangoon's airport seized a "dummy" video
tape while the real tape of the meeting was shown yesterday at a Bangkok news
conference. On the tape, Ms Suu Ky was seen telling the seminar that the
country's military regime used "education as a weapon".
"Education is not a right, it is conditional," she said.
This was a reference to a requirement that students attending the recently
reopened universities, some of which had been closed for more than a decade,
sign a statement of loyalty to the government.
Ms Suu Kyi said that not only was no criticism of government policies
allowed, but students who used un-approved textbooks were penalised.
She said universities had only been opened in order for Burma to achieve
greater access to international aid and trade.
Ms Suu Kyi said that while efforts should be maintained to improve the
moribund education system, there had to be freedom of _expression_. "Democracy in
Burma first and everything else follows," she said.
The military regime claims 60,000 students now attend universities, while
critics maintain the real figure is closer to 25,000.
South China Morning Post
Wednesday, August 23, 2000 BURMA - Reopening of universities 'a surface job' WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok After slipping into Rangoon for a one-day opposition forum on education,
pro-democracy advocates from 10 countries declared Burma's reopening of
universities a charade.
The education system under military rule remained a "disaster", the 14 activists, students and journalists said in the Thai capital yesterday. "Burma's education system is in dire straits. Young people in Burma know
this and reject it as a sham," said Graham Bailey of South Africa's Free Burma
group.
Thousands of Burmese students returned to classes for the first time in
three years this month when universities were allowed to restart classes at all
levels.
Most of the country's universities have in the last 13 years been open only
for some 30 months. The majority have been closed since an outbreak of student
protests in late 1996.
In a video brought back from Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), described the move as a "mere
surface job to make people think there has been progress".
Some 200 NLD members and supporters attended yesterday's education seminar
with the 14 foreigners. They heard reports of untrained teachers, a shortage of
textbooks, a ban on "controversial" subjects like politics or human rights, and
dispersal of many students to new campuses out of town, often near army camps.
"The biggest joke is the trimming of the university year down to three
months. We heard that some universities don't offer classes at all, but just
hand out assignments," said Ragnhild Stinnes of Norway's National Union of
Students.
"Even authoritarian governments have been unable to accept the closing of
the universities. It's been a terrible indictment of military rule," said Debbie
Stothard, co-ordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma.
Students in Burma have traditionally been at the forefront of protests
against the authorities, going back to the days of British colonial rule. A
student demonstration in 1988 snowballed into unprecedented nationwide protests.
The 14 activists said they discovered that every student was now made to
sign papers promising to shun any political activity.
Micheal Bootzin, of the Free Burma Coalition, argued that the authorities
wanted to keep the people in ignorance to better control them. He said they were
now offering "half-baked" education to present a better image to the world so as
to receive more aid.
Although the low-profile visit appeared to be monitored by the secret
police, the fact that none of the 14 were arrested showed that the regime might
be becoming more sophisticated, a diplomat said.
In mid-1998, 18 activists were arrested and sentenced to lengthy jail terms
for distributing pro-democracy stickers in the street. They were released after
an international outcry.
The Straits Times - Aug 23,
2000.
Myanmar university re-openings "a sham' Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says students were forced to
promise not to get involved in politics, and have only three months of
lectures
By JAMES EAST
STRAITS TIMES THAILAND BUREAU BANGKOK -- The re-opening of Myanmar's universities is a ""sham'',
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told an international team of activists who
flew to Yangon this week to meet her and learn about the plight of the country's
students.
Despite the military government's highly-publicised re-opening of the
universities after 10 years of virtual closure, the team was told that students
were being forced to sign documents vowing not to get involved in politics, had
only three months of lectures in a year and suffered from a severe shortage of
textbooks.
The 14-strong team met 200 people at the Yangon headquarters of Ms Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), and was told that campuses had been
shifted from the capital to paddy-field locations and next to army bases to
prevent them from becoming hotbeds of resistance.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) closed the universities in
1988 following anti-junta riots in which thousands of students were reportedly
killed.
The team comprised activists from 10 countries -- Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and the
United States.
They spoke with Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as well as
delegates attending an NLD education seminar, including housewives, teachers,
Buddhist monks, teenagers and representatives from the ethnic minority.
Dressed in a yellow blouse and wearing flowers in her hair, Ms Suu Kyi
urged the visitors to tell the world the opening of the universities was a
facade.
""It is a mere surface job to make people feel that there are
improvements,'' she said in a video-taped recording brought out by the group.
The activists were told that many eager students attended underground
lectures, a move that put their teachers at risk of imprisonment for up to 50
years.
Universities did not offer human rights and politics courses, history
lecturers overlooked events embarrassing to the junta and government figures of
60,000 students nationwide were apparently exaggerated.
But the NLD claimed there were no more than 25,000 students.
On top of the backlog of students waiting to attend classes, there were
many others who could not afford to travel to the campuses.
Military education institutions, however, have remained open, but to be
eligible to join them, students must join the army.
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