Student protesters and police clashed Tuesday in a central Myanmar town where authorities have for more than a week prevented the activists from marching to Yangon to demand education reform.

Riot police used batons to beat back students who tried to push through police lines. A video from the scene appeared to show armored police smashing the windshield of a vehicle used by the students.

Protest leader Thiha Win Tin told VOA that police arrested at least 32 people. He said many protesters were injured during the clashes.

“So many people are injured. And also some of the students are bleeding (on) their heads. They hit the students’ heads. They used their sticks and they threw some of the bricks,” he said.

The clashes came hours after student leaders told VOA the government agreed to let the activists continue their protest march to Yangon, Myanmar’s main city. It is not clear what part of the reported deal broke down.

But Thiha Win Tin said the deal was no longer effective. “The agreement is finished. They don’t agree to anything anymore,” he said.

The group, made up of hundreds of students, set off from Mandalay last month to demand Myanmar’s military-dominated government scrap a new education reform law.

The students say the law will centralize control of universities in Myanmar, also known as Burma. They also want more government spending on education as well as the freedom to organize teachers and students.

The government threatened to arrest the students if they continue their march, which authorities have said is “harming the peace and stability of the country.”

Protests are tightly restricted in Myanmar, which is recovering from decades of a harsh military dictatorship. Democratic freedoms have improved slightly since 2011, when the country’s military leaders handed power to a nominally civilian government.
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