Pro-junta mob breaks up Myanmar protest

A pro-junta mob broke up a rare protest by about 150 pro-democracy activists in Myanmar's main city Yangon yesterday amid mounting public anger over a massive fuel price hike.
It was the second protest this week to defy the secretive generals who have clung to power here for 45 years, and came a day after several activists were arrested.
Wednesday's protesters, most of them women, marched for about two hours through the northern outskirts of Yangon until about 200 supporters of the military regime blocked their path.
People hung out of their apartment windows to cheer on the protesters, and others in the streets stood on the pavements and applauded -- a rare move as even observing a protest is an act of defiance in Myanmar.
The protesters disbanded after a brief standoff when the pro-government mob blocked their path, but plain-clothes security forces continued to patrol the area.
Eight of the protesters were thrown into a car and driven off. Some shouted, "We are being arrested unjustly and unfairly."
They were released after about five hours in detention, and were forced to sign a statement promising not to join any more demonstrations, according to Ohn Hla, who was among those arrested.
Two other people were arrested in downtown Yangon amid rumours of another protest.
About 500 people had staged a similar march on Sunday, in what was the largest anti-government protest in the capital in at least nine years.
The junta usually cracks down hard on even minor expressions of public dissent, and keeps a firm grip on all the nation's media.
The marchers Wednesday were heading north from Yangon toward Insein Township, home to the notorious Insein prison that holds some of the nation's estimated 1,100 political prisoners.
State media said that 13 leaders of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students group, which led both protests, had been arrested. They remain in detention. Activists said at least 10 others had also been detained on Tuesday.