End of an extended break in Burma

[heiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

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Australian News Network:
End of an extended break in Burma

5jan00 

RANGOON: Engineering students in Burma began returning to classes this
week, three years after the military regime closed all universities to
quell political protests. 

Authorities have taken the precaution of moving the university classes
away from traditional campuses - the focal points of student unrest in
the capital, Rangoon (Yangon). 

Universities, hotbeds of activism since British colonial rule, have been
open for a total of only 30 months since 1988, when the current
generation of generals came to power after crushing an uprising against
military rule. 

The Government's economics tsar, Brigadier-General David Abel, told
foreign reporters that classes at universities and colleges were being
reopened gradually and all the institutions would be holding classes by
May. 

He said medical and dental institutes and technical colleges were also
open. Third and fourth-year engineering students from the capital began
studies on Monday at the newly opened Yangon Technology University in
Hlaingtharyar, 16km from downtown Rangoon. 

"Though this new campus is far from my house, I am so excited to return
to classes," said one of the students. 

Other classes of the institute remain suspended. First and second-year
engineering classes were expected to resume early this year. 

The Government says campuses have been relocated for student
convenience. 

Students outside Rangoon will study in Prome, about 240km north of the
capital, and those in upper Burma will study in Mandalay, the
second-biggest city. 

Yangon Technology University is the new name for Yangon Institute of
Technology, whose old campus in the capital used to be a centre for
student demonstrations, including protests that triggered the failed
1988 uprising. 

Along with other colleges in Myanmar, it was last closed on December 9,
1996, after protests against police handling of a quarrel between
students and some restaurant workers. 

The protests had quickly taken on a political edge, and the generals had
accused Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's
embattled democracy movement, of organising them.
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