YANGON: Activists on Saturday called for the immediate release of student leaders detained in Myanmar's largest crackdown on dissent since the dissolution of the junta last year.
At least 20 people were detained ahead of Saturday's commemoration of a brutal 1962 suppression of a student movement, sparking fears authorities had taken a backward step from tentative reforms which have seen the international community ease some sanctions on the formerly army-ruled Myanmar.
Neither the detentions, nor the presence of plain clothes police, deterred around 300 people from gathering in Yangon to remember the bloody blitz on students protesting against military rule in Yangon University some five decades ago.
"We call for the release of those arrested students immediately. This kind of arrest can harm the dignity of the government. Arrest without reason can also harm national reconciliation," said a young student leader Kyaw Ko Ko.
"We also have to accuse the government of trying to go backward. "Two government officials confirmed that students had been held ahead of the event, without providing exact numbers.
"The government is worried by the students holding this kind of ceremony. They took the precaution of detaining the prominent ones. They can be released in coming days," one government official in Yangon said.
The detentions raise questions about the strength of Myanmar's reforms since it dropped outright military rule last year in favour of a quasi-civilian government led by reformist president Thein Sein.
Activists say the detentions run against the momentum of reform which has swept the poor former amry-ruled nation.
Urging the "immediate release" of the students, Mie Mie, a veteran of the Generation '88 protests a major student-led revolt in 1988 branded the move "an obstacle on the way to democracy".
Four student leaders were held in Yangon and others were taken in for questioning by police in three other locations across the country, according to activists.
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