Suu Kyi scoffs at reopening of universities
By DON PATHAN
BURMESE opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the
reopening of the universities in Burma is a sham and urged students from other countries to put pressure on
their respective governments to call for democracy in the trouble-plagued country.
In a videotaped interview released yesterday to the media in Bangkok, the Nobel Peace laureate said the re-
opening of the universities had come about amid pressure from the local and international communities.
The move does not represent progress, she said. "The consensus of opinion is that the universities have been
opened because of pressure, both external and internal, and this is a mere surface job to make people think
that there has been progress," Suu Kyi said. She added that Burma's education system would remain in a
mess unless there was democracy in the county.
The statement was made in Rangoon on Monday during a one-day forum on education hosted by the opposi-
tion National League for Democracy party. Fourteen human-rights activists from 10 countries also took part in
the event, which was attended by nearly 200 NLD members.
"Students everywhere, all over the world, are very, very effective in getting their governments to see what
should be done, what ought to be done, especially with regard to such basic needs as human rights and edu-
cation and development," Suu Kyi said.
Meanwhile Graham Baily, a former anti-apartheid activist from
South Africa who took part in the forum, accused the Burmese generals of using education for political gain.
He compared the scheme to his home country during the apartheid era. "[Burmese] people have been denied
the right on how to think,"
Baily said.
Ronny Hansen, project manager of Worldview Rights in Norway,
dismissed the government's claim that 60,000 students had registered at the universities, saying the real fig-
ure was about 25,000. The Burmese military government shut down universities in December 1996 after pro-
democracy rallies and student unrest.
Ragnhild Skinnes of the National Union of Students in Norway blasted the junta for forcing the students to
take an oath to stay out of politics, saying the move constituted taking away political rights.
The Bangkok-based Altsean human-rights organisation's Debbie
Stothard warned the international community against complacency over Rangoon's decision to open the uni-
versities. "What we are concerned is that the inter-national community will get complacent and say this is
good news and then proceed to pay off the military in terms of great aid and trade," Stothard said.
A number of campuses have been relocated outside the capital, and a number of courses on politics and his-
tory have been excluded from the curriculum, the activists said. In August 1998 Burmese authorities arrested
a group of 18 pro-democracy activists in Rangoon for handing out materials urging the people to speak out
against the junta. They were immediately deported after being charged with sedition.
Suu Kyi's NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election but was denied the fruits of victory by the
junta. Her party continues to speak out against military rule in Burma and has consistently urged the interna-
tional community to issue sanctions against the regime.
Wednesday, 23 August 2000
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