Myanmar claims student rallies manipulated to \\\'create unrest\\\'

YANGON, Feb 6 (AFP): Myanmar Friday said political forces were manipulating education reform protests to "create unrest", amid increasing unease over rallies across the country, a claim rejected by activists.

The information ministry, in a nod to the former junta-ruled nation's often bloody history of student activism and military crackdowns, said previous bouts of violence had "tarnished the country's image in the past".

"Some political organisations, so-called students and those masterminding the rallies are using the students with the excuse of education to create unrest," it said in a Myanmar language statement published in the state-controlled Mirror newspaper.

Hundreds of students and supporters are marching towards the commercial hub Yangon from the central city of Mandalay to call for reforms to an education bill that they claim is undemocratic.

The students have pressed on with their rally, despite warnings from authorities and meeting several police blocks on their route.

Demonstrators rejected the suggestion that they were being manipulated for political means.

"The student leaders say that there is no one behind them but the people," one veteran activist marching with the protesters told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Protests, which began in November on the heels of US President Barack Obama's visit to the country, flared again in January after students said the government had failed to meet their deadline for talks in reforming the education system.