Students, Police Scuffle as Myanmar Protest Tensions Boil
Local Editor
Student activists scuffled with riot police in central Myanmar, vowing to burst through a wall of security personnel who had surrounded them for over a week at a protest for education reform.
Student protesters had embarked on months of demonstrations calling for education reform, but plans by a core group to march to Yangon had been halted by police in the dusty central town of Letpadan, who had surrounded around 150 activists since March 2.
Demonstrators declared that patience had frayed after authorities appeared to have reneged on an agreement to allow them to continue their march.
"If it isn't going to go as we agreed, we will break the blockade," activist Nanda Sit Aung said ahead of the altercation.
"They will choose whether they allow or arrest us," he said, adding their protest was peaceful and had been long announced to authorities.
The government has defended its Friday crackdown on an unauthorized rally in the heart of the commercial hub of Yangon, despite accusations from witnesses and campaigners that police and men in civilian clothes beat unarmed protesters with batons.
Eight activists were briefly held in the police action, which caused a ripple of outrage in a country where students activism was a potent political force.
Young campaigners had been at the forefront of several major uprisings, including a huge 1988 demonstration that prompted a bloody military assault under the former junta.
Observers fear democratic reforms in Myanmar, which was gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian rule, were stalling in the run-up to a breakthrough general election slated for the end of this year.
The latest crackdown had deepened concerns that authorities had not lost the repressive reflex forged during the junta era.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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