Student activist Po Po spent the night of Thursday, 8 April 2015, in a Kamayut Township jail. The 20-year-old human rights defender was arrested that day from her home, less than a month after a Kamayut Township Judge issued an arrest warrant for Po Po and fellow student activists Myat Thuya, Nanda Sitt Aung and Kyaw Ko Ko. – See more at: https://hrasean.forum-asia.org/#sthash.TcgXn8qq.dpuf
Posted 2015/4/10
Student activist Po Po spent the night of Thursday, 8 April 2015, in a Kamayut Township jail. The 20-year-old human rights defender was arrested that day from her home, less than a month after a Kamayut Township Judge issued an arrest warrant for Po Po and fellow student activists Myat Thuya, Nanda Sitt Aung and Kyaw Ko Ko.
Myat Thuya and Kyaw Ko Ko remain free despite the pending warrant, but Nanda Sitt Aung was arrested a few days before Po Po, who has since been remanded to Insein Prison.
Po Po is a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Union (ABFSU). Since November 2014, student organizations like ABFSU have been protesting against the National Education Bill, which activists and independent experts claim restricts academic freedom. Enacted by Parliament on 30 September 2014, the National Education Law was intended to reform the country’s education system, but opponents claim the government did not seek adequate student input in its formation. According to local news outlet the Myanmar Times:
[Protestors and student unions] have also highlighted that [under the new law] ethnic languages, cultures and literatures will not be allowed to feature on any university syllabus. But most importantly, they say, the law means private universities will remain under the control of the education ministry and that both teacher and student unions will remain technically illegal.
A number of organisations, including ABFSU, presented a list of ten demands to the Parliament for an amended statute, which include the adoption of ethnic languages in school curricula and the right to form student and teacher unions.
Po Po was involved in the peaceful student protest in Letpadan on 10 March 2015, but escaped the violent police response to the movement, which resulted in the arrest of approximately 126 students. Along with Myat Thuya, Nanda Sitt Aung and Kyaw Ko Ko, Po Po went on to lead a protest in Yangon demanding the release of all students detained.
She is due to be arraigned on 10 April 2015, along with Nanda Sitt Aung, at the Kamayut Township Courthouse under articles 143, 145, 147 and 505(b) of the Penal Code. The charges against the pair are set to include participation in an unlawful assembly and rioting. The alleged offences carry penalties of up to three years in prison.
Front Line Defenders expresses its grave concern at the detention of human rights defenders Po Po and Nanda Sitt Aung, which it believes to be solely the result of their human rights work, and the continued suppression of the right to peaceful assembly within Myanmar.
Source : www.frontlinedefenders.org