MYANMAR STUDENTS METEORITES

MYANMAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS expelled after education protest.

FOURTEEN - YES 14 students have been expelled from a Myanmar university after staging a campus protest calling-

For more education funding, an activist said Sunday - Sparking concern over ending freedoms in the fledgling democracy.

The four day rally at Yadanbon University in Mandalay drew some 100 students before it was broken up by police on January 25. Students were key drivers of political activism under the former military regime, which violently cracked down on dissent during its 50 year reign.

It was the First Student Protest under Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian administration, which took power in early in early 2016.

MANY had hoped Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate and former political prisoner, would usher in a new era of freedom.

But a rash of  defamation cases and arrests of journalists, plus lingering censorship in the arts, have dampened optimism and triggered alarm that freedoms are backsliding.

The latest case to draw rebuke was the expulsion of 14 students in Mandalay, who participated in the rally calling for more national spending on education.

''We............were given a letter saying that we were expelled for breaking regulations,'' Kyaw Thiha Ye Kyaw, a  22 year old law student at Yadanabon, told AFP.

''Our demands are not for us..........but for all students and all educational staff around Myanmar,'' he added.

Mandalay's chief minister Zaw Myint Maung refused to answer reporters' questions about the case, saying only : 

We are just acting according to the law.'' Other officials could not be reached for comment.

The World Students Society will watch the development on daily basis. All Myanmar students to join up on !WOW!.