Eleven charged, 3 detained as education rows heighten

 

Activists rallied in the city on the day, held in solidarity with a rolling student demonstration calling for education reform. In the week, several groups of workers also staged strikes over pay. 

Hundreds of police officers were deployed in the city. 

Many blocked students from Mandalay from marching to Yangon. On Friday, they were still in Letpadan, Bago Region, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Yangon. Barricades were put up on March 2, infuriating the students. They later resolved not to observe parliamentary discussion on the new education draft law.

“If the barriers are removed, we will attend the hearing of the Upper House parliament,” Kyaw Ko Ko, chairman of All Burma Federation of Student Unions, known as Ba-Ka-Tha. 

On March 3, police in Mandalay charged three activists who joined local students protesting against the crackdown.

The three activists, Aye Thein, Amar Ni and Tin Mar Yi, were charged under Section 18 and Section 505 (b). At a press conference on March 5, they said the charges were unfair. 

 “We don’t have any weapon and we’re staging the protest peacefully. We staged the protest together with local students urging authorities not to crack down on the protesters in Letpadan.

“We negotiated with the minister of border affairs and security to stage the protest. We were supposed to stage the protest until 5pm but stopped at 4.15pm. The minister promised us they had no plan to take legal actions. But now we are being charged. We think these charges are unfair,” said Aye Thein, one of the political activists.

On March 5, Myoma police charged 11 local protesters and detained three for supporting the main student protest column in Letpadan, 

Zin Mar Win, the wife of activist Nandar Soe, said eight men came to her house and took her husband for questioning.

“They told me that they would question him as he took part in the protest. His friends told me that he did not participate in the protest to support the students. He went to Sagaing Region and returned home. I don’t understand why my husband was detained,” she said.

 Police Capt San Myint said he had to take legal actions because they had no permission to join the protest.

President's office director Zaw Htay sparked an angry online reaction after a post on his personal Facebook page suggested using deputised civilians against protesters was legal under Myanmar's penal code.

On that day, an official from Kyauktadar Township in Yangon warned through a loudspeaker that the protesters should disperse at 3.30pm.

Around 4pm, about 50 students and more than 60 supporters gathered in front of the city hall to demand that authorities not to use violence against the main boycott student column and to show their support for the main column, which was blocked in Letpadan on its way to Yangon. They were surrounded by more than 300 men wearing civilian clothes and red armbands bearing the word "duty" and over 500 police.

"Men wearing civilian clothes with red armbands started attacking the protesters. They looked very rude. Before the attack, reporters asked them who are they and what their duties here are. They replied rudely to the reporters that those are none of their business. They even attacked girls," said a witness.

"I was very frightened to see the beating. It's as if the government is trying to backslide," said a female witness.

Police arrested three 88 Generation members and five students. 

"The students who were arrested are Zin Min Phyo, Hein Htet Aung and Zaw Linn Htut. Nilar Thein, Nu NU Aung and Myo Thant from the 88 Generation as well as two others were also arrested. It's not fair to attack peaceful protestors so violently. That's why we students do not trust the government," said a student protestor.

Several students, supporters and a reporter were injured during the crackdown. There has been widespread public criticism of the government's handling of the protest. 

The latest crackdown has deepened concerns that authorities have not lost the repressive reflex forged during the junta era.

Myanmar's authorities have a long history of using groups of hired civilians to violently disperse protesters - most recently in 2007 when thugs attacked protesting monks and civilians during a period of large demonstrations that came to be known as the "Saffron Revolution".