Authorities Root Out Fugitive Student Leaders

A prominent leader of the 88 Generation Students group sought by the authorities since the start of protest demonstrations in August was arrested on Wednesday morning when he emerged from hiding to be treated in a Rangoon clinic, activist sources said.

Three other members of the group were arrested on Tuesday, the sources said.

Hla Myo Naung, in his late 30s, suffers from a ruptured cornea and his doctor says he will lose the sight in one eye unless the condition is surgically treated, according to Htay Kywe, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, who spoke to The Irrawaddy from his own hiding place. He is also on the regime’s wanted list for his part in the demonstrations.

Htay Kywe said Hla Myo Naung was arrested at the eye clinic shortly after arriving there.
 
Hla Myo Naung played a leading role in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and spent five years in prison during the early 1990s. Thirteen of his fellow activists, including the most prominent, Min Ko Naing, were arrested on August 21 following a peaceful march against the government’s sharp increase in fuel prices.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, three student leaders of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, an underground organization, were arrested about 10 minutes after one of them, Kyaw Ko Ko, talked to The Irrawaddy by phone from his hiding place. 
 
Sithu Maung and Han Ni Oo, both in their 20s, were arrested together with 25-year-old Kyaw Ko Ko during a raid by security forces in South Okkalapa Township, Rangoon, said another activist, Lin Htet Maung, who narrowly escaped arrest by jumping from a window. The owner of the house in which they had been hiding was also arrested, Lin Htet Maung said.

All of them played a key role in demonstrations in August and September. Kyaw Ko Ko and Sithu Maung were studying at the Institute of Economics (Rangoon) and Han Ni Oo was a young woman student at the University of Rangoon (Eastern Campus).

 “They (generals) called for dialogue, but they do not keep their word, and there is only more repression in Burma”, said Lin Htet Maung. The arrests came one day after the junta appointed a liaison officer for contacts with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Another member of the 88 Generation Students group, Soe Tun, said troops had raided a house in San Chaung Township, Rangoon, searching for a wanted student leader. They failed to find him.

“So they arrested the owner of the house, Myint Myint Kyi,” he said. “Her son is also a political prisoner,” said Soe Tun from his hiding place.

The All Burma Federation of Students’ Unions issued a statement on Tuesday saying its members were committed to carry on their struggle for democracy.

The exiled Foreign Affairs Committee of the ABFSU said that although the regime had appointed a minister to handle contacts with Aung San Suu Kyi it was still arresting dissidents and deceiving the international community.