AFP-Myanmar military detain 30 high

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Subject: AFP-Myanmar military detain 30 high school students, group says

Myanmar military detain 30 high school students, group says
BANGKOK, Aug 17 (AFP) - Exiled Myanmar dissidents Tuesday said 30 high
school students had been arrested by the ruling military for taking part in
an anti-government demonstration in the south of the country.
The Thailand-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) said the
youths were detained on August 12 after they held a demonstration in Margui,
485 kilometers (300 miles) south of Yangon.

During the one-hour protest some 150 pupils marched along the streets of the
city chanting anti-government slogans, according to an ABSDF statement.

They were also demanding authorities release detained students and
permission to set up a student union.

The demonstrators denounced the junta for the closure of universities since
1996 and chanted "march ahead to the 9/9/99 movement," the statement said.

Exiled pro-democracy activists based in Bangkok have been calling for a mass
uprising against the junta on September 9, a day of numerical significance
for many Burmese.

August 8 marked the 11th anniversary of a popular uprising in 1988, or
8/8/88, in which hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators were gunned down
and a junta took power from dictator General Ne Win.

"We are seriously concerned about the plight of the arrested students in
Margui and demand the military release them immediately," the ABSDF's
secretary general Aung Thu Nyein said in the statement.

"They honestly expressed the basic suffering of the students and (the junta)
should not take action against them," he added.

Military authorities in Yangon could not be immediately contacted to confirm
the report.

On Sunday the junta, responding to reports of a renewed crackdown on
dissent, accused its opponents of mounting a "smear campaign" against the
government ahead of the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Exiled Myanmar students over the weekend said some 120 pro-democracy
activists had been arrested in the past two weeks in an effort to quell the
planned pro-democracy uprising next month.

A statement from the junta did not specifically deny the arrests but said a
report from exiled student groups in Thailand that a virtual curfew was in
place in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, was "totally fabricated."

On Friday, Myanmar's military rulers said they had uncovered details of a
plan to instigate a massive uprising next month and warned of firm action
against activists.

A military spokesman showed reporters documents which allegedly listed the
names of those involved and details about the planned uprising.

He also confirmed the detention of two ABSDF members and two members of the
main opposition National League for Democracy party.