Four students from Mandalay University are being held in solitary confinement as punishment for going on hunger strike, according to a joint statement from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and the Former Political Prisoners Society.
The groups said that the student union activists, Naing Ye Wai, Aung San Oo, Jit Tu and Nyan Lin Htet, went on strike because a bail request to take exams in September had been denied.
The four were arrested July 1 on accusations of spraypainting university property with slogans opposing a controversial education law. Their graffiti also demanded the release of dozens of other students who had been charged in March with offenses tied to a protest against the same bill.
The education draft law was widely opposed by student groups because it didn’t protect academic freedom. Despite negotiations, MPs passed the law in June with few of the students’ demands incorporated.
According to the joint statement yesterday, it took the judge a total of 10 minutes to reject the bail request in a hearing on August 21.
The reason? The students might distract others or use the opportunity to launch new protests.
“They need to release the students,” Tin Maung Oo, a member of the Former Political Prisoners Society, told Radio Free Asia. “They should have a chance for exams.”
Photo / University of Mandalay / Wikicommons
