YANGON: Security forces beat activists protesting in downtown Yangon with batons, campaigners and witnesses said on Thursday, arresting around eight in a surge in tension over spreading student rallies calling for education reforms in the former junta-run nation.

Dozens of demonstrators we­re sent scattering after they were set upon by unifor­med police officers and men wearing civilian clot­hes with red armbands who attacked the group, according to witnesses and campaigners.

“I was quite scared. A policeman hit me with a baton, he was aiming for my head but he hit only my arms” said 17-year-old student Su Yin Lin on the sidelines of a hastily arranged press conference by activists on Thursday night.

“He hit me once and then another student pulled me away,” she added, her left arm bearing visible bruising.

Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government, which replaced outright military rule in 2011, is being closely wat­ched in a key election year amid fears that its reforms are stalling.

Scores of people, protesting on a variety of issues, have been arrested in recent months for demonstrating without permission.

Thursday’s rally saw about 50 protesters gather in the heart of Yangon, Myanmar’s main commercial hub, in solidarity with a student demonstration in the central town of Letpadan, where around 200 activists have been corralled by riot police since Monday.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

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