March 18, 2013

Myanmar Moves to Rebuild Its Universities, With U.S. Help

Myanmar Takes Steps to Rebuild Its Ruined Universities, With American Help 1

AP Photo, Khin Maung Win

The overgrown entrance to the U. of Yangon highlights the ruin, after decades of military rule, of what was once Burma's finest university. Undergraduates were banished from the campus years ago, after nationwide student protests.

By Lara Farrar

Yangon, Myanmar

The scars from the years that Aung Thein Lwin spent in Burmese jails are indelible. His teeth are bright white because they are false. His real ones, he says, were knocked out during numerous beatings in prison.

In 1988, when he was in high school, Mr. Aung Thein Lwin participated in antigovernment student protests that broke out on college campuses across Myanmar, then known as Burma. The response from the government was brutal. Thousands of students were killed, while others, like