[CSMONITOR] Hundreds of Myanmar police struck out violently against university students and activists protesting a new education law, hitting and dragging them away to trucks, and bringing an ugly end to a month of demonstrations in this small town.
The government says its reforms will give universities more autonomy and allow for an independent body to coordinate their functions. Myanmar once had one of the best university systems in Southeast Asia, but standards fell sharply during nearly five decades of military rule.
But students say the new law will curb academic freedom, weaken the role of professors and student unions, and centralize an anti-democratic authority over universities. Their protests have spread across the country, and many protesters have worn symbolic straw hats and sung songs that hearken back to historic democratic uprisings in 1988. |