Myanmar Gov't Closses Campus Roads

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Myanmar Gov't Closes Campus Roads


 .c The Associated Press 

YANGON, Myanmar (Sept. 4, 98)--(AP) -- The military government closed all
roads to a university campus in Myanmar's capital following student protests
demanding that examinations be delayed. 

Roads to the Hlaing campus of the Yangon Institute of Technology were sealed
off late Thursday and remained closed Friday. However, no heavy security
presence was visible. 

While the demonstrators indicated their grievances were mostly about exam
procedures, students have been the vanguard of political unrest in Myanmar and
the government often sees student protests as a cover for the pro-democracy
opposition. 

The Hlaing campus had been closed since the last wave of student protests two
years ago. It re-opened recently to permit students to study and take their
long-postponed final exams. 

Students could be heard shouting and chanting inside the campus Thursday
evening, but it was impossible to known how many were involved because access
was barred. 

The last student protests were in December 1996, when the military sentenced
dozens of students to long prison terms. Universities have been shut since. 

Examinations are scheduled for Monday, and students at the Hlaing campus said
that was too soon. They complained the seven-day crash course they were given
covering the last two years' curriculum was simply not enough. 

Students in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have historically been at the
forefront of movements aimed at gaining independence or democracy. When the
military took control of the country in 1962, one of its first acts was to
blow up the student union building at Yangon University.