Students do exams to enter closed M

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Students do exams to enter closed Myanmar colleges

YANGON, March 4 (Reuters) - Nearly 400,000 Myanmar (Burmese) high school
students began taking university entrance exams this week although most of the
country's universities have been closed for the past 16 months to prevent
unrest and no one knows when they will reopen. 

These students are in addition to 200,000 others who were pushed out of more
than 30 universities and colleges which were closed in early December 1996
after a series of anti-government protests. 

The protests were the largest seen in Myanmar since nationwide pro-democracy
uprisings in 1988, which were brutally crushed by the military before it
seized power. 

Powerful Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, last week said the government was
arranging to reopen closed colleges and universities. 

``Preparations are under way for students' peaceful pursuit of their studies,
their transport and accommodation and peace of mind of their parents,'' Khin
Nyunt said. 

He also denied rumours that universities would be closed for a long time, but
did not say when they might be reopened. 

Over 200,000 other students who passed the entrance exams in 1996 and 1997 are
also still waiting to begin their tertiary education. 

Universities and colleges were closed for two years following the 1988
uprisings, and students have said they fear for their education with this
round of closures. 

Students were at the heart of the 1988 uprisings and analysts said authorities
were worried about the unexpected December, 1996 protests which were sparked
by what students said was unfair police handling of a quarrel between some
students and restaurant workers. 

The government later blamed underground agents of the disbanded Burma
Communist Party for fanning the demonstrations which spread from Yangon to
dozens of universities and colleges across the country. 

When the previous government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council,
closed the institutions, it vowed to reopen them when the situation
normalised. ^REUTERS@