ABFSU uses anniversary to highlight student victims of post-coup Myanmar

By Admin 08 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
8 May 2023, Sittwe

Eleven students have been killed and 55 others were detained — 30 of whom were subsequently given prison sentences — since the military coup on February 1, 2021, the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) said in a statement to mark the 87th anniversary of its founding.

“These are the war crimes committed by the terrorist, fascist military. We will continue to fight military dictatorship together with the people,” an ABFSU official told DMG.

The victims were killed during junta soldiers’ raids on their houses and in crackdowns on anti-coup protests, said the ABFSU.

Detained students were given prison sentences ranging from three years to life, primarily under provisions of the Penal Code and Counter-Terrorism Law. One student was given the death sentence and three others were given life sentences.

The ABFSU in its statement said it has been through thick and thin together with the people from Myanmar’s colonial days to the current military regime, and has taken a lead role in demanding peace, students’ rights and opposing military dictatorship.

The ABFSU said it has carried out 947 anti-regime activities including protests and distributing anti-coup pamphlets since the military takeover.

DMG reached out to junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun to ask about accusations that the regime has killed 11 students and imprisoned 30 others since seizing power, but those phone calls went unanswered.

The Arakan Students Union and Dagon University Students Union were among the organisations sending congratulatory messages to the ABFSU on the 87th anniversary of its founding.

Ko Oo Than Naing, spokesman for the Arakan Students Union, said: “We and the ABFSU are allies. The ABFSU actively participated in anti-war activities in Arakan State, and we have therefore sent a congratulatory message to honour it.”

The Arakan Students Union in its message to the ABFSU vowed to continue to fight the dictatorship in cooperation with the ABFSU.