NEW DELHI: A General conference of Burmese students taking refuge in various places in India will be held at Leikul in Manipur in the second week of July to review the changing situation in Burma and also to unite the three Student organizations operating from Indian soil.
Soe Myint one of the two Burmese students who had hijacked a service Bangkok-Rangoon aircraft and diverted it to Calcutta in November 1990 told the Times of India News Service that there were over 200 Burmese students currently in India. This included 80 in Delhi while the others were located in Bombay Manipur and Mizoram. Those in Delhi and Manipur were receiving refugee relief from a UN agency.
The three student organizations are the Burma Students League the All Burma Students Union and the Burma Democratic Guerilla Front. These organizations would like to be merged into one at the general conference besides formulating a strategy to meet the new situation in Burma. Recently quite a few political prisoners have been freed by the military regime currently presided over by a new chief Gen. Than Shwe.
“We do not believe that the situation has actually relaxed at the ground level Unless power is transferred to the elected representative’s it would be wrong to assume that there has been a change for the better” Myint who was freed on bail in February 1991 after no charge-sheet was served in the hijacking case stated.
According to him nearly 20000 Burmese students were taking refuge along the Burma-Thailand border and most of them were active in armed struggle against the Burmese army. Stating that the Burmese students in India also believed in armed struggle to achieve their democratic objectives he however said no armed activity had been undertaken by them so far.
The students who had fled Burma had virtually abandoned their studies since they could not secure admission to institutions in the absence of any documents. However some of the students in Delhi were being imparted vocational training under the auspices of a UN agency while some hope to pursue studies at the Indira Gandhi Open University.
According to Kyaw Kyaw Hiut. general secretary of the Burma Students League a protest rally will be held in front of the Rurmese embassy here on May 27 against the refusal of the militancy regime to respect the results of the May 271990 multi-party elections in that country.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992
