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NEWS - Students held in crackdown



BURMA
Sydney Morning Herald
Students held in crackdown
Date: 17/08/99


By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok

More than 30 students have been arrested as part of a security crackdown
ahead of planned protests against military rule on September 9,
according to
the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.

The 9.9.99 date has been chosen for its numerological significance - the
four nines are seen as a portent of change. The date also follows the
"four-eights day" - August 8, 1988 - which marked the start of
student-led
nationwide protests in that year.

"It is hard to say just what will happen," one foreign diplomat in the
capital, Rangoon, said yesterday. "But some of the claims of mass action
could be a case of wishful thinking by people on the Thai side of the
border." A spokesman for the All Burma Students' Democratic Front
(ABSDF),
Mr Khin Maung Win, said yesterday that 33 students had been detained in
the
southern town of Mergui.

He said they were among more than 100 high school students who publicly
demanded last week a return to democracy, educational reforms and the
release of imprisoned fellow students. The students face charges under
Burma's Emergency Provisions Act, which carries a minimum seven-year
jail
sentence.

The Government said last week that it had arrested four people after
exposing a conspiracy to incite an uprising on September 9, including
two
members of the ABSDF and two members of the National League for
Democracy,
the main opposition party.

Government officials have confirmed that security operations have been
stepped up to uncover plans by dissidents to disrupt public order.
However,
the military regime has denied claims that more than a hundred people
have
been arrested in different parts of Burma during recent weeks,
maintaining
that the ABSDF is engaged in a smear campaign.

The crackdown follows a visit to Rangoon earlier this month by the
Australian Human Rights Commissioner, Mr Chris Sidoti, to discuss
prospects
of setting up an independent body to monitor human rights in the
country.