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Burma junta closes education centres

Clampdown on schools and universities follows detention of democracy leader Suu Kyi as regime effectively ends dialogue with opponents

Vaudine England in Hong Kong
Monday June 2, 2003
The Guardian


Burma's military junta yesterday closed all schools and colleges indefinitely, two days after detaining pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party's leadership.

"The military regime is very worried that they are facing a Cory Aquino-type of people power movement, and basically, they've panicked," said a diplomat, referring to the mass pro-democracy protests which ousted the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Government spokesman Brigadier Than Tun has accused Suu Kyi of making inflammatory speeches critical of the ruling junta, inciting the people to violence.

Suu Kyi has been drawing crowds of up to 20,000 on her travels around the country - the spark for the regime's latest move, diplomats believe.

The school and university closures take Burma back to the years following Suu Kyi's victory in elections in 1990, which the military never recognised, instead placing her under house arrest. Educational institutions were reopened and Suu Kyi released from house arrest for the second time just over a year ago, amid hopes for fresh dialogue and promises for the charismatic Nobel prize winner's freedom of movement and assembly.

But now international fears for Suu Kyi are rising, as her whereabouts and condition remained unknown late last night. The Foreign Office minister, Mike O'Brien, called on Burma to "release immediately Aung San Suu Kyi and other party members".

"Over the past few weeks I have been alarmed by persistent, credible reports that the Union Solidarity Development Association [Usda], and other groups supported by the military regime, have been inciting local people into protests against [Suu Kyi's] National League for Democracy [NLD]," he said.

Suu Kyi and 19 members of the NLD have been placed under "protective custody", the military government said on Saturday. Offices of the NLD across the country have been closed over the weekend and their telephones cut off. The spate of arrests has incarcerated the party's executive committee.

Rumours were spreading through the diplomatic community that Suu Kyi had been brought back from the northern town of Mandalay to the capital, Yangon, on Sunday but confirmation was unavailable.

Her detention was described as "surprising" and "damaging" by western diplomats.

One Bangkok-based diplomat said the detention raised serious doubts about the future of dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC.

On Suu Kyi's recent trips out of the capital she has faced sometimes violent harassment from the Usda.

And the harassment appears to have become more organised. On Thursday the regime issued a statement accusing her followers of being lawless and endangering the country's moves toward democracy.

"But this is 180 degrees away from the reports we have been receiving consistently in the past week - that it is Suu Kyi who has been under attack," a diplomat said.

Suu Kyi's detention took place after a riot in Mandalay in which clashes between her followers and those of the junta caused four deaths and injuries on both sides. She had been on a month-long tour of northern Burma to open party offices and speak at rallies.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, expressed concern about the situation and said the developments underlined the urgent need for national reconciliation.

More than 1,000 of Suu Kyi's party members are in jail; some have been there for years.

Suu Kyi recently attacked the military for the slow pace of change, saying the failure of the military to accept her party's election victory 13 years ago was "an insult".


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