Slorc tries to reopen schools in Ra

[caroline@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Slorc tries to reopen schools in Rangoon

                SLORC TRIES TO REOPEN SCHOOLS IN RANGOON
Date:  January 27,1996
	
	The State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) tried to reopen on
January 6, 1997, all State High Schools in Rangoon which had been closed by
the junta after the student demonstrations last December.
	According to an ABSDF source in Rangoon, the schools were opened on the
morning of January 6, but the Slorc officials decided that there was
instability among the students and so they closed them all again in the
evening. 
	Meanwhile, the Education Minister is reported to have said schools would be
closed for another five months.
	Diplomats in Rangoon said Education Minister U Pan Aung recently told the
Australian Ambassador to Burma that the schools would be closed until June.
	However, Slorc recently reopened on January 8, 1997, Myit Kyinna Degree
College in Kachin State, which had been closed by the junta after the
student demonstrations last December.
	A student who recently arrived on the China-Burma border, said that while
students were demonstrating in Rangoon in December, professors, lecturers
and the registrar of Myit Kyinna Degree College persuaded their students not
to concern themselves with politics. 
	To encourage students to stay away from demonstrations, the College reduced
the price of a cup of tea in its canteen to one kyat, the student said.
	When they closed Myit Kyinna Degree College, state officials asked the
regional police stations to collect the biographies and addresses of the
students. The student said Slorc officials from Bamaw township appropriated
five Toyota Hilux trucks to take 60 Bamaw students to the College,
pretending that they were concerned about student affairs. 
	

All Burma Students' Democratic Front