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AFP-Myanmar holds first university



Myanmar holds first university exams in 20 months

       Tue 18 Aug 98 - 09:49 GMT 

       YANGON, Aug 18 (AFP) - University exams were being held across
Myanmar Tuesday for the first time since
       campuses were closed amid unrest 20 months ago, but students said
the tests were worthless and vowed to press for
       political change.

       There was only light security at examination centres in Yangon, with
several uniformed police and plainclothes
       intelligence agents at each site, most of them schools.

       All schools across Myanamar were ordered closed from Monday for at
least one week while the exams took place,
       officials said.

       The exams were also being held at public facilities across the
country in what diplomats said was a bid to avoid
       students gathering at campuses or travelling to Yangon.

       "The education ministry decided that for all the schools to be able
to run on the same timetable they should all be
       closed together and reopen at the same time after the exams are
finished," a junta spokesman said in a statement.

       "They will all make up for the loss by putting in extra school time."

       The schools were closed without notice Monday, residents said.

       "Not every school is a test centre," another foreign diplomat said,
adding "the word is they are not going to open till
       mid next week."

       The exams take place in an atmosphere of escalating tension just
days before a Friday, August 21 deadline set by the
       leading National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party for
authorities to convene parliament or face
       unspecified consequences.

       The NLD-led opposition won 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta
has refused to relinquish power.

       The Thailand-based opposition All Burma Students Democratic Front
(ABSDF), meanwhile, said students involved in
       the 1996 unrest had been excluded from the new exams. The claim
could not be independently verified.

       ABSDF foreign affairs secretary Aung Naing Oo described the exams as
a "farce," noting students had received no
       tuition since the 1996 unrest.

       "Students have not been given a chance to study so how are they
going to do this? The whole thing is a farce," he told
       AFP, adding due to the lack of study any new graduates would be
unable to "contribute anything."

       "The army is effectively killing off the future of our country," he
said.

       The ABSDF official said his organisation belived the junta would
present the examinations to the world as an example
       of freedom and change but said the end result would be a shortage of
qualified professionals.

       The Student Federation of Thailand, meanwhile, called for ASEAN
countries to pressure the Myanmar junta to allow
       greater political freedoms and remove all restrictions from the
eductaion system.

       The Thai student group in a statement offered moral support for
Myanmar students as well as all the people in their
       fight for democracy.

       The opposition, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD), won 1990
       polls by a landslide but the junta has refused to relinquish power.

       The ABSDF meanwhile said two members had been jailed for seven years
each for distributing party literature.

       The two senior NLD provincial officials were arrested along with
nine other party members on August 2 for alleged
       violations of the printers and publishers registration act.

       The NLD chairman in the central Myanmar town of Chauk, U Kyi Toe,
and local secretary U Aung Than Nyunt were
       sentenced on August 13 to seven years jail but the fate of the other
detainees was not known, the ABSDF said in a
       statement.

       The report followed Friday's sentencing of 18 foreign activists to
five years imprisonment with hard labour for handing
       out leaflets promoting democracy and human rights. The sentences
were immediately suspended and they were
       expelled to Bangkok Saturday.



          ©AFP 1998