Activists beaten, arrested at Myanmar rally: witnesses

Yangon (AFP) - Security forces beat activists protesting in downtown Yangon with batons, campaigners and witnesses said Thursday, arresting around eight in a surge in tension over spreading student rallies calling for education reforms in the former junta-run nation.

Dozens of demonstrators were sent scattering after they were set upon by uniformed police officers and men wearing civilian clothes with red armbands who attacked the group, according to witnesses and campaigners.

"I was quite scared. A policeman hit me with a baton, he was aiming for my head but he hit only my arms" said 17-year-old student Su Yin Lin on the sidelines of a hastily arranged press conference by activists on Thursday night.

"He hit me once and then another student pulled me away," she added, her left arm bearing visible bruising.

Myanmar's quasi-civilian government, which replaced outright military rule in 2011, is being closely watched in a key election year amid fears that its reforms are stalling.

Scores of people, protesting on a variety of issues, have been arrested in recent months for demonstrating without permission.

-- 'We cannot tolerate this' --

Thursday's rally saw about 50 protesters gather in the heart of Yangon, Myanmar's main commercial hub, in solidarity with a student demonstration in the central town of Letpadan, where around 200 activists have been corralled by riot police since Monday.

Authorities have expressed determination to stop that group from continuing their planned march to Yangon, the site of several mass student demonstrations in Myanmar's modern history that have convulsed the country.

"We will definitely respond with another movement," said student leader Min Thu Kyaw, who was at the Yangon protest. But he said the group would wait to see how the government would proceed.

Min Ko Naing, leader of the 88 Generation democracy campaign group, held up a printout at the press conference of a photograph from the crackdown showing a young female protester being held by the neck by a man in an armband.

"Are they showing the brutality of this era?" asked the veteran of mass student-led rallies nearly three decades ago that rocked Myanmar's then military government.

"We cannot tolerate this at all."

Those sporting red arm bands had the word for "Duty" emblazoned on them, witnesses said.

Police at the scene earlier confirmed that seven people were arrested, but the government has yet to make an official comment on the crackdown.

-- Student defiance --

Student activism is a potent political force in Myanmar with young campaigners at the forefront of several major uprisings, including a huge 1988 demonstration that prompted a bloody military assault under the former junta.

The 88 Generation is made up largely of student activists from that mass protest, which also saw the rise of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition.

Until now the authorities had appeared reluctant to take forceful action against the months-long student protests, despite the activists holding their demonstrations without permission.

Tensions have risen since Tuesday when students in Letpadan ignored a deadline from authorities to disperse and give up plans of marching to Yangon, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) further south.

The students have rallied for months against education legislation, calling for changes to the new law including decentralising the school system, giving students the right to form unions and teaching in ethnic minority languages.

Talks between the government and the young activists had led to a rethink of the legislation by parliament, which is currently debating proposed changes.

But students earlier on Thursday told MPs they were pulling out of the discussions because of police efforts to stop the Letpadan activists from going to Yangon.

"The security of student protestors from the main march is at risk," the All Burma Federation of Students Unions said in an announcement.