Yangon education campaigners expressed solidarity with demonstrators in Letpadan through a ‘white armband’ movement. PHOTO/ COCONUTS MEDIA
Female student protesters arrested during a brutal crackdown on demonstrations in central Myanmar last week say they were forced to take pregnancy tests while detained.
In interviews with The Irrawaddy, activists condemned the practice as intended to demean education reform campaigners, whose popularity has surged since baton-wielding police set upon crowds of demonstrators, arresting dozens, in Letpadan on March 10.
Thitsar Aye Myat Mon, 19, and Tint Tint Khaing, 22, who were both released without charge, said all female detainees were subjected to mandatory urine testing at Tharyarwaddy Prison the morning after their arrest, without explanation from officials.
Prison officials could not be reached for comment but the Bago Division deputy police chief told the magazine the jail could have a policy in place that enforces testing on admittance.
Thitsar Aye Myat Mon told The Irrrawaddy she believed the practice was enforced to defame the students.
Former political prisoner Ma Thandar, wife of murdered journalist Par Gyi, suggested that authorities were “trying to damage the image of the student movement as the protests get bigger”.
The movement has heated up in recent months as campaigners protest an education law that they say will curtail academic freedoms.
