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15 detained in Myanmar's crackdown on protest in capital

Xinhua, March 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

A total of about fifteen people were detained in Myanmar authorities' crackdown on a 200-strong demonstration here on Thursday in support of core students' strike underway in Bago region's Latpadan with regard to issue of national education law amendment.

Of the 15 people arrested when they staged the protest in front of Yangon's City Hall, seven are student activists and some are leaders from the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society.

The police took action to disperse the protestors after it issued a warning to order them to dissolve within half an hour.

As of Thursday, the main student group's sit-in protest involving a dozen of Buddhist monks was still underway near a monastery compound in Letpadan in defiance of an ultimatum order of the township administration to halt protest within six hours.

Despite the end of the deadline on Wednesday evening, negotiations between the two sides still continued.

Meanwhile, some student representatives of the Network for National Education Reform (NNER) who were invited to join the parliament's hearing on the education amendment bill Thursday boycotted the session which was also taken part by political parties.

On Tuesday, senior Buddhist monks in Yangon made a request in their statement to their followers involved in students' strike to stay away from the people who are preparing to march from Lepadan to Yangon region crossing the regional boundary.

In its bid to prevent student protest from descending into violence for the sake of national security, rule of law and community peace, the Home Ministry has reiterated its warning of action to be taken against students' planned non-stop protest march towards Yangon as hearing of the students' demand for the change of National Education Law is in progress in the parliament.

In a four-party talks on Feb. 11 involving the government, the parliament, the Leading Committee for Democracy Education Movement and the National Network for Education Reform (NNER), the government agreed in principle to protest students' all 11 points of demand on the amendment of the education law. Endi