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NYT: After Burmese Protests, Capita
- Subject: NYT: After Burmese Protests, Capita
- From: Winston_Lee@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 11:16:00
Subject: NYT: After Burmese Protests, Capital Is Tense
>From New York Times, Monday, December 9, 1996
A military junta struggles to control student protests: by Seth Mydans
Bangkok, Thailand, Dec. 8
The streets of Yangon were quiet but tense today as hundreds of policemen
blocked off parts of the Burmese capital to prevent demonstrations by angry
The move came after a week that saw the largest student demonstrations since
the army killed hundreds of people in crushing a peaceful pro-demonstrations
have brought a new threat of instability to the military Government, which is
struggling to neutralize the democracy movement of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The police, using truncheons and fire hoses, broke up the protests, arresting
hundreds of student who had staged sit-ins, thrown rocks and marched through
the streets carrying banners reading, "We want freedom" and "Give us human
The police also erected roadblocks to insure that the students would not
approach the house of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, and they confined her to her
house, temporarily reinstating the house arrest that ended after six years in
Since September, the authorities have prevented her from making her from making
her regular weekend addresses to thousands of supporters, the country's only
forum for speech.
Col. Kyaw Win, deputy director of military intelligence, told reporters last
week that those meetings would no longer be allowed. He said she would be free
to meet with supporters inside her compound, but she has said that is not
On Thursday, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi said that she had no links with the students
but that they appeared to share her anger at the military junta that has ruled
the country since the crackdown in 1988.
"What I understand is that they were demonstrating against police brutality and
injustice," she told reporters. "We're against police brutality and injustice
too, so I could say that we are all on the same side."
Colonel Kyaw Win said he believed that "political infiltration" had been
involved in the student demonstrations and that "there may be a threat to
The unrest comes at a difficult moment for the Government. It is eager to be
accepted next year as a full member of the Association for Southeast Asian
Nations, the region's political and economic grouping.
Membership would bring some measure of international respectability to a
government that is widely condemned in the West for its human-rights violations
and for canceling the results of an election in 1990 that was won by Mrs. Aung
San Suu Kyi's party.
At a conference in Indonesia a week ago, leaders of the association, known as
Asean met with Gen. Than Shwe, head of the junta, but left unclear whether they
were ready to embrace his Government.
In ambiguous statement, they said Myanmar would be accepted as a full member
simultaneously with Laos and Cambodia, which are also waiting to be elevated
from the status of observers.
Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore have expressed concerns over the
situation in Myanmar, formerly called Burma. But other nations led by
Malaysia, are eager to induct all three countries by next July, when Asean will
mark its 30th anniversary.
The grouping insists that one of its tenets is "noninterference" in one
another's internal affairs. In addition, some members are offended by the
insistence of the United States and other nations on the importance of human
After the meeting, Myanmar's Foreign Minister, Ohn Gyaw, said no one had talked
to him about human rights.
"There was no suggesting or advice that 'If you want to join Asean, you should
do this or that.'" he said.
While cracking down on the pro-democracy movement, the junta has also attempted
to open up the country in a demonstration of normalcy, inviting reporters to
monthly briefings and opening its door to tourists with the start of "Visit
Myanmar year" last month.
Campus unrest is particularly worrisome to the junta because it was student
demonstrations in 1988 that led to the collapse of the 30-year authoritarian
regime of Ne Win and set off the democratic uprising that sent the country into
The current campus turmoil carries remarkable parallels to the 1988. In both
cases, it was set off by a violent confrontation at a tea house and escalated
as students grew angry over their treatment by authorities.
The incident this time came in October, when three students were severely
beaten by the police after a dispute with a tea-house owner. Determined not to
let the incident escalate, the Government arrested two police officers and
sentenced them to two-year prison terms.
But the students were not mollifited. In their first demonstration last week
on Monday, a group of up to 1,000 presented officials with a list of demands
including a complete accounting of the tea-house incident, release of students
arrested in a protest that followed it and an investigation into the
distribution on campus of leaflets telling them to calm down and concentrate on
In addition, they called for the creation of an independent student union, a
highly symbolic demand. The student union was abolished and its historic
building was destroyed in 1962, shortly after Mr. Ne Win came to power in a
The demands were rejected on the spot, and later in the night, several hundred
students marched from the glowing, golden stupa of the giant Shwedagon Pagoda
through the streets of the city, chanting their demands. Before the
authorities dispersed them, they marched past the smaller Sule Pagoda, where on
Aug. 8, 1988, tanks and soldiers opened fire on student demonstrators.
PICTURED: Trucks carrying Burmese troops patrolled a street yesterday in
Yangon, the capital. The Government had many major streets near campuses
blocked by soldiers and riot police officers to prevent student protest.