Student protesters wait near the gate of the Aung Mye Beikman monastery after police surrounded it apparently to prevent them from proceeding with a protest march to Yangon from Letpadan
Truckloads of police yesterday prevented hundreds of students from continuing their march to Myanmar’s biggest city to protest a new law that they say curbs academic freedom.
Tensions have been building since the rally began in the country’s second-largest city of Mandalay just over a month ago, with public sympathy growing for the demonstrators, who have repeatedly defied threats by authorities to turn back or face the consequences.
Around 200 students staying at a monastery in the town of Letpadan, 145 kilometers north of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and its former capital, had announced plans to continue their march early yesterday.
But they woke up to find more than a dozen police vehicles, including a water cannon truck, parked outside the building.
After agreeing to delay their plans, they were joined by another large group of students, who had pushed their way through baton-wielding police, shouting “Let us go! Let us go!”
The new education law, passed by parliament in September, puts all decisions about policy and curriculum in the hands of a body made up largely of government ministers. It bans students from forming unions and ignores calls for local languages to be used in instruction in ethnic states.
Students want the law scrapped, saying it undermines the autonomy of universities, which are still struggling to recover after clampdowns on academic independence and freedom during the days of dictatorship. AP
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