Yangon: Activists on Saturday called for the immediate release of student leaders detained in Myanmar’s largest crackdown on dissent since the dissolution of the junta last year. At least 20 people were detained ahead of Saturday’s commemoration of a brutal 1962 suppression of a student movement, sparking fears authorities had taken a backward step from tentative reforms which have seen the international community ease some sanctions on the formerly army-ruled Myanmar.
The presence of plain clothes police did not deter around 300 people from gathering in Yangon to remember the bloody blitz on students protesting against military rule in Yangon University some five decades ago. “We call for the release of those arrested students immediately. This kind of arrest can harm the dignity of the government. Arrest without reason can also harm national reconciliation,” said a young student leader Kyaw Ko Ko. Urging the “immediate release” of the students, Mie Mie, a veteran of the Generation ’88 protests branded the move “an obstacle on the way to democracy”.
The anniversary remembers a the bloody 1962 crackdown on students protesting against military rule in Yangon University. The day after the deadly army suppression, the student union building was destroyed with dynamite by the junta while some injured students were still hiding inside.Aung San Suu Kyi has urged caution over Myanmar’s reforms and has called on the government to release those still in custody from the junta era. (AFP)