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Myanmar junta shuts down universities

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in custody in Yangon yesterday as the ruling military stopped thousands of university students from attending classes as part of broad crackdown on dissent.

The closure of all universities and colleges, traditionally a hotbed of political unrest in the impoverished Southeast Asian country, was announced late on Sunday and many students had not heard the news.

Education ministry and security officials turned students away at the gates of institutions on the outskirts of the capital where they were moved in the late 1990s after previous unrest.

"They asked us to go back home and said we would be informed when classes will start again," said one young woman outside Yangon University East were dozens of students were milling about.

Most of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) offices around the country were closed over the weekend after the Nobel peace laureate and other opposition leaders touring the north of the country were detained.

The military says she was taken into "protective custody" on Friday after clashes between her supporters and pro-government groups in a northern town in which four people were killed.

Suu Kyi's exact whereabouts were not known but sources close to the junta said she was being held in a "government guesthouse" in Yangon.

Other top NLD members have been confined to their homes and their telephone lines have been cut. Western diplomats trying to visit them have been turned away by security officials.

The UN, Japan and Thailand expressed concern about the situation.

"We strongly hope that the government of Myanmar will take a moderate response and that the situation will quickly be restored to normal," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

"The whole world is concerned, and I think the Myanmar government understands," Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters. Hundreds of Myanmar dissidents have sought refuge in Thailand over the past 15 years.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was following developments with concern.

Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest in May last year and had made several trips into the provinces since then to meet party workers and supporters.

Her party officials had recently complained of harassment by pro-military groups while the military said her supporters were causing "traffic jams and commotion."

Apart from the confusion at the gates of Yangon colleges, life in the capital appeared normal yesterday.

An education ministry source said the government had closed universities and colleges "indefinitely."

Most universities and colleges began their second semester on May 1. The remainder were to have opened yesterday.

Universities have been closed several times since the bloody suppression of a student-led, pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

Suu Kyi emerged as pro-democracy leader during those protests. Her NLD won 1990 elections by a landslide but was denied power. More than 1,000 of her party members are in jail.

Foreign diplomats said they feared the new detentions could deal a death blow to stalled talks between the generals and the opposition on the country's political future, which began in 2000. UN special envoy Razali Ismail, who brokered the talks, is due in Myanmar on Friday.
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