14 foreigners join NLD Education Forum in Rangoon
Bangkok: -- A team of 14 people from 10 countries have returned to Bangkok after par-
ticipating at a day-long forum on education hosted by the National League for Democ-
racy (NLD) in Rangoon yesterday.
The group joined nearly 200 NLD members and supporters to discuss the state of educa-
tion in Burma. The local participants were women and men from diverse backgrounds in
terms of age, ethnicity, education and professional background.
The foreign participants were academics, journalists, youth workers, student activists
and NGO representatives from Australia, Canada, Indonesia,
Ireland
, Malaysia, Nether-
lands, Norway, South Africa, Thailand and the USA
The Forum took up the entire day's activities of the NLD and included six parallel work-
shops on:
- education as a human right, the social function of education
- development issues related to lack of education, current alternatives for those who
want education
- student and youth activism in the face of oppression - student political prisoners and
repressive tactics of the junta
- the truth about the recent re-openings of universities and colleges by the junta
- what is needed in terms of education in terms of the reconstruction of Burma
- what can international activists and the international community can do to help.
NLD General Secretary and Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was co-facilitator and
one of the translators for the day.
The 14 foreign participants will report their findings this morning at a press conference:
Tuesday, August 22, 11 a.m. at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.
Tuesday, 22 August 2000
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