The arrests this week of five Myanmar student leaders who led a peaceful protest against military control of the country’s parliament show that Myanmar’s government is unwilling to make real progress toward democratic reform, rights groups in the country said on Thursday according to a report by RFA on 2 July.
On 1 July, five protest leaders were charged with violating Section 18 of the country’s penal code, which requires prior permission to be obtained from authorities before any rally can be held, according to local media.
The June 30 march in Myanmar’s former capital Yangon drew hundreds of participants and followed a June 25 vote in parliament in which lawmakers failed to pass amendments to the country’s 2008 junta-drafted constitution that would have removed the military’s veto on legislative reform.
Wednesday’s arrests show that Myanmar’s government, while pretending to move toward reform, is still deeply unwilling to change, Aung Myo Min, director of the Yangon-based rights group Equality Myanmar told RFA.