Student protesters go on trial

By AFP
13 May 2015
Student protesters go on trial
Aung Mhine San (C), student leader, gets out from a police vehicle at Township court in Letpadan, Bago division, Myanmar, 11 March 2015. Photo: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Dozens of Myanmar education activists May 12 went on trial in a case that has sparked international alarm and raised fears of a return to junta-era tactics in the slowly reforming nation.
The mostly young campaigners were arrested two months ago during a violent police crackdown on student-led protests calling for education reform in what was one of the most concerted challenges to the government of reformist Prime Minister U Thein Sein.
The 70 accused are facing a raft of charges including unlawful assembly and rioting - offences that lawyers say could see them jailed for up to nine and a half years.
On May 12 the court heard from the prosecution's first witness, Phone Myint, head of police in Letpadan town where in March protesters trying to meet fellow activists in Yangon clashed with baton-wielding riot police blocking their way.
He defended his force's tactics, saying they drew upon training sessions from the European Union, which has run programmes to train Myanmar's decrepit police force.
"We prohibited them (students) according to EU techniques," Phone Myint said without elaborating in the packed courtroom.
The EU has voiced concern at the crackdowns, while the United States and United Nations have also expressed alarm.
The trial closed for the day before the police chief completed his full statement and was due to resume on May 26 for 69 students, the court heard.
One of the activists, aged only 16, was released on bail and would face trial at a separate court for minors, his lawyer Aung Thein told AFP.
- Defiant chants - 
Earlier Tuesday around 200 supporters and family members gathered outside the courthouse in the central town of Tharrawaddy as the students arrived, many of them shouting slogans in support of the activists, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian government introduced much-praised reforms after a half-century of military rule ended in 2011. But some observers fear these are stalling as the country heads towards a landmark election later this year.
Students have been agitating for months calling for changes to a new education law, including decentralising the school system, allowing student unions and teaching in ethnic-minority languages.
The March crackdown in Letpadan came just days after police broke up a student rally in the commercial capital Yangon, helped by men in civilian clothes, in moves that Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party said echoed tactics under the former junta.
Students have long been at the forefront of political action in the nation's turbulent history, leading mass protests in 1988 that saw the rise of democracy campaigner Suu Kyi and her party but which were brutally quashed by the military.
Myanmar MPs are redrafting the controversial education bill in response to an outcry from students and activists. 
Last month the country's upper house said students should be allowed to form unions for the first time in decades, one of the major issues activists had been campaigning for. 
But the revised bill looks set to fall short of other key demands from education activists, as conservative forces have sought to dampen the amendments.
The prosecution is due to call more than 40 government witnesses during the trial, the court heard Tuesday.
A further 11 education activists are due to attend court on Thursday in a separate trial over the same protest.
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