Burmese students protest (fwd)

[chan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 14:57:06 +0500 (GMT+0500)
To: burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Burmese students protest

Burmese students protect peacefully outside university
Rangoon, Dec. 2: 1,000 students demonstrated on Monday in front of 
Rangoon University the largest such protest in years, demanding that 
Burma's military government grant more student independence and prove 
police brutality. Security were not immediately deployed to observer and 
break up the peaceful demonstration, a possible sign that the government 
hoped to avoid a potential explosive confrontation. No link between the 
protect and democracy movement led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San 
Suu Kyi was apparent. But it came a day before the ruling State Law and 
Order Restoration Council's monthly news conference, usually a time 
opponents set up activities to coincide with the arrival of foreign 
journalists. 
" We are the students, we are united." chanted the protesters, mostly 
from Rangoon Institute of Technology. After marching three kilometers to 
the university they state a sit- in that half-closed University Avenue, 
the street where Ms. Suu Kyi live. Traffic was very disorderly.
" We will go back only when our demands are met," said Myo Aung, 24, an 
engineering student. The crowd was twice the size of a peaceful student 
protest held on October 21, the first major one in years, against the 
police which allegedly beat three students following a dispute with a 
restaurant owner. The demonstrators on Monday announce what, if any, 
action has been taken against police involved and that students expelled 
after the October protest be reinstated. That protest has been called off 
only when authority promised to take action against the police.
The demonstrators demanded the formation of a student committee to handle 
student affairs, which could viewed by the authorities as dangerously 
independent. They also wanted  authorities to investigate recent leaflets 
mailed to students calling to October protesters troublemakers.
The leaflets were signed by a hitherto unknown group, certainly formed by 
the government, called " Students Who Desire to Pursue their Education 
Peacefully." The regime detained one of Ms. Suu Kyi's top deputies, 
Mr.Kyi Maung, for more than a week after the October demonstration.