Reuters-Myanmar steps up schools vi

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Subject: Reuters-Myanmar steps up schools vigilance after protest 

Myanmar steps up schools vigilance after protest
06:34 a.m. Aug 17, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has increased vigilance at
high schools to prevent student unrest following an incident in the south of
the country last week, Yangon residents said on Tuesday.

In the southeast of the country, meanwhile, traders crossing to Thailand
said authorities in the Myanmar border town of Myawadi broadcast warnings
against joining an uprising that dissidents in exile had called for next
month.

The broadcasts stressed existing rules against gatherings of more than five
people and warned of tough punishments against anyone who defied the orders.

A Yangon resident, who did not want to be identified, said teachers at
schools in Yangon had been specially assigned to watch for agitation
following the uprising call and an incident in the southern town of Mergui.

A Myanmar dissident group said on Monday that the ruling military had
detained 33 students, most of them of high-school age, for joining a
demonstration in Mergui last Thursday involving about 150 people.

The government said some students were being questioned by authorities after
an incident in the town in which agitators had tried to stir up student
unrest.

``Similarly, measures are also being taken by other townships to prevent
political extremists and unscrupulous elements from disrupting the
children's education and creating civil unrest,'' a government statement
said on Tuesday.

Myanmar dissidents in exile say authorities have detained more than 150
people in the past two weeks after the call for a general uprising on four
nines day -- September 9, 1999.

Dissidents chose the date for its numerical significance after ``four-eights
day'' -- August 8, 1988 -- which marked the start of a student-led
pro-democracy uprising in 1988 which the military crushed.

Anti-government sentiment remains strong in Myanmar but the military has
kept a tight rein on dissent since ignoring the result of a 1990 election
the opposition won by a huge margin.

It has halted most university classes for much of the past decade to prevent
a resurgence of student activism.