Myanamar detentions prompt fears of backward step

More than 20 activists are said to have been detained in Myanmar on the 50th anniversary of a brutal military crackdown. The development raises concerns that the country’s tentative reform process could be in danger.
Student leaders on Saturday called for the release of activists detained across Myanmar, claiming that the country's apparently reformist government still harbors a repressive element.
A total of 23 people were arrested in an operation that began on Friday night, said the leader of the All Burma Federation of Students Union, Kyaw Ko Ko.
"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," he said.
"We also have to accuse the government of trying to go backward."
Despite the detentions and the presence of plainclothes police, students gathered in the largest city, Yangon, on Saturday to commemorate the 1962 crackdown. The military at the time had been taking action against students who were opposed to a coup four months earlier.
'Old habits die hard'
Claims that the government's reformist agenda might be in some jeopardy were echoed by Ko Ko Gyi, a leader of a failed democracy uprising in 1988.
"Even when the president has repeatedly said his government is making real reforms, it is very disappointing that there are some in the government who still cannot abandon their old habits," he told the AP news agency.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has voiced only cautious optimism about reforms in the country, calling on the government of President Thein Sein to release all political prisoners detained during the rule of the military junta.
The current government, still dominated by a pro-military party, has earned international praise for reforms enacted since elections in 2010 paved the way for a civilian government.
rc /tj (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)