LETPADAN, MYANMAR // Student protesters on Tuesday defied an order to disperse in a tense standoff with hundreds of riot police in central Myanmar.
Some 200 young activists calling for education reform, chanted “we are unified!” as they maintained a sit-in at a monastery compound in the town of Letpadan.
The group, which has been joined by a dozen monks, has been tightly encircled by security forces since Monday.
Authorities in the formerly army-run nation have vowed to halt the activists’ planned march to the nation’s main city Yangon, some 130 kilometres further south and the scene of previous major student-led demonstrations.
“The police are still blocking our way. We will not move from here until we get our demands,” student leader Min Thwe Thit said.
He said some protesters had decided to go on hunger strike to underscore their calls to be allowed to continue marching.
Students have rallied for months against the education legislation, calling for changes to the new law including decentralising the education system, giving students the right to form unions and teaching in ethnic minority languages.
The situation remained tense on Tuesday evening after the group, which is protesting without permission, ignored a deadline to disperse.
“They need to stop. If they don’t follow what we say, we need to take action against them,” said government spokesman Ye Htut.
He urged the protesters to halt their rally and await the deliberations of parliament, which is rethinking a controversial education bill that the students say is undemocratic.
Student activism is a potent political force in Myanmar with young campaigners at the forefront of several major uprisings, including a mass 1988 demonstration that prompted a bloody military assault under the former junta.
Authorities have appeared particularly keen to avoid any large gathering of students in Yangon, where major protests have previously erupted.
* Agence France-Presse
