Authorities in Myanmar on Friday arrested five students from among 200 people protesting controversial education legislation they say will limit academic freedom, after blocking the group from entering the commercial capital Yangon, according to one of those detained.
The arrests were the latest action against protesters of the National Education Law, which they say will break up student unions and allow the government to take decisions on issues such as curriculum out of the hands of universities.
Students have been marching from the central city of Mandalay for more than a month, but authorities have set up a blockade and held them in the Bago region’s Letpadan, 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yangon, where protests in 1988 touched off a pro-democracy movement in then junta-ruled Myanmar.
On Thursday, police and plainclothes thugs beat protesters in Yangon, who had gathered near City Hall to voice their support of the group in Letpadan, and arrested eight students and activists, drawing condemnation by rights groups.
The four male and one female students arrested Friday morning had left the main protest group to march through Letpadan, shouting accusations of police brutality against the protesters before they were taken into custody and brought to the Thayarwaddy township police station, witnesses said.
They had also demanded that authorities allow the protest march to continue to Yangon and had called on local residents to assist the students, they said.
Aung Min Khant, who was among those arrested, said police had not yet leveled charges against them.
Meanwhile, authorities on Friday released the eight people detained a day earlier during the demonstration in Yangon, members of the 88 Generation pro-democracy group said, calling on the government to accept responsibility for the crackdown.
Activist Ko Ko Gyi urged authorities in Yangon to address the violence employed by more than 300 civilians wearing red armbands and some 500 police to disperse 100 protesters, while addressing the media at the 88 Generation’s office in the city.
“We won’t accept this violence, particularly when authorities ordered plainclothes thugs, wearing red armbands, to attack the protesters and students,” he said.
“This violence occurred in Yangon region, that’s why we believe that the Yangon government is responsible for solving this problem.”
88 Generation activist Min Ko Naing questioned why wearing a red armband granted someone the power to arrest protesters, and demanded to know who had ordered them to act.
Kyaw Ko Ko, president of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), an umbrella group for all students in the country, called the crackdown “illegal” and demanded justice for the protesters.
Minutes after telling the protesters to disperse on Thursday, baton-wielding police and men hired to carry out the crackdown started chasing down the protesters, dragging them into waiting trucks.
Those arrested Thursday included students Zin Min Phyo, Hein Htet Aung, and Zaw Linn Htut, while 88 Generation activists Nilar Thein, Nu Nu Aung, Myo Thant and two others were also detained. Several students, supporters and a journalist were injured in the crackdown, according to local reports.
Agence France-Presse quoted a report by the state-run Mirror newspaper which said police had acted legitimately to disperse the rally.
“The authorities repeatedly asked the people to disperse. But because the protesters fought back against the authorities, there was a crackdown and some protesters were detained,” the report said.
Plan to boycott
Also on Friday, representatives from more than 20 civil society organizations announced a plan to boycott a parliamentary hearing on education law reform to be held next week.
Representatives from the Network for National Education Reform (NNER)—an organization consisting of educational, political and religious groups—and the Democracy Education Initiative Committee (DEIC) also informed parliament that the groups will not attend the hearing, set for March 14.
Activist Zin Nwe Win, from the Pyi Gyi Khin civil society group, said the decision—reached by the groups during a meeting Thursday in Yangon—stemmed from the blockade of the students in Letpadan.
“We have decided not to attend the hearing because the main student group is blocked in Letpadan and as a result of the crackdown in Yangon against protesters who had urged against the use of violence,” she said.
“That’s why our civil society groups have decided not to attend the hearing for recommendations [to the law].”
According to the official Global New Light of Myanmar, 15 political parties offered their suggestions for amendments to the National Education Law at the Upper House of parliament on Friday.
The newspaper said student protesters had accepted parliament’s invitation to discuss amendments to the law, “but were unable to send a representative, prompting them to ask for another chance.”
The chairman of parliament’s Bill Committee told the New Light that lawmakers would inform the students of a new date “two or three days in advance” and pledged to “give careful consideration and special attention to suggestions made by political parties in writing the bill.”
Student march
Hundreds of students began a 644-kilometer (400-mile) march on January 20 from central Myanmar’s Mandalay to protest the controversial education law, passed last September, which they say restricts academic freedom.
Many monks and ordinary citizens joined them along the way to help them demand the decentralization of the education system, changes to university entrance exam requirements, modernization of the national syllabus, the right to form student unions, and instruction in the country’s ethnic minority languages.
The Myanmar government agreed in principle in February to all student demands concerning national education reform in four-way talks with students, lawmakers and education advocates, although parliament has not yet approved the changes to the legislation.
At the time, government representatives and lawmakers also agreed to include students and other education professionals in referendums and education law drafts.
Reported by Wai Mar Tun, Kyaw Lwin Oo, Thin Thiri, and San Maw Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.