Student Demonstrations staged in The North On Phone Maw

Student Demonstrations staged in The North On Phone Maw's Day

On the anniversary of the death of a student in Rangoon which triggered a countrywide unrest in Burma 12 years ago, there were student demonstrations in northern Shan State, an informed source told S.H.A.N. yesterday.
The demonstrations started after 3 students were arrested for breaking school windowpanes in Hsipaw, a historic town 204 miles north of Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State on Monday, 13 March.

"About 13 students, after coming out of their 10th standard exam rooms were said to be feeling angry," 
said the source, a trader from the area. " So they threw some rocks at the school windows and broke some panes."
After three of them were taken by the police, the students made a phone call to Kyaukme, 21 miles southwest of Hsipaw, for a joint protest.

Hundreds of students from the three towns, Hsipaw, Kyaukme and Namlan (30 miles south of Hsipaw), gathered in Hsipaw. They lay down on the Mandalay-Lashio highway blocking the traffic and shouted they wanted back the 3 friends who were in jail, he said.

They also demanded K.500 from each of the 200 plus motor vehicles that were stuck on the road to buy food, he said. Liquor and food were then brought in for the rallying students who then proceeded to hold a drunken party until 03:00 in the morning when they dispersed.

"All the time, no soldiers, police or teachers dared to go to the students to reason out with them," he said.
The next day, 15 students were detained, 3 from Namlan, 2 from Kyaukme and 10 from Hsipaw, according to him.
Yesterday all the arrested students were released by the Northeastern Command after signed guarantees by their parents and relatives and the student's heads were shaved, he said.

13 March coincided with the day when Phone Maw, a student in Rangoon, was killed during a riot in 1988. The disturbances that ensued brought down the socialist government of U Ne Win and put the present regime in place.