Crackdown thwarts Myanmar protest
Myanmar's military junta moved swiftly yesterday to crush the latest in a series of protests against fuel price hikes, arresting more than 10 activists in front of Yangon City Hall before they could launch any action, witnesses said.
The arrests came after protests spread beyond the main city of Yangon, and amid mounting international condemnation of the government's suppression of the peaceful, but rare, displays of opposition in the tightly controlled country.
Demonstrators on Thursday had marched through the oil-producing town of Yaynang Chaung to protest the fuel price hikes. The protest the first known of outside Yangon ended peacefully, said residents who requested anonymity for fear of government reprisals.
Another protest planned there for Friday was cancelled after authorities agreed to reduce bus fares, which had been raised as a result of the fuel price increases. Nevertheless, in Yangon, rumours swirled Friday of more upcoming demonstrations.
Myanmar's ruling junta has been widely criticized for human rights violations, including the 11-year house arrest of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta tolerates little public dissent, sometimes sentencing activists to long jail terms for violating broadly defined security laws.
The activists arrested Friday mostly belonged to a recently formed group called the "Myanmar Development Committee," which in February staged its first protest in busy downtown Yangon holding placards calling for better health and social conditions and complaining of economic hardship.
On Thursday, plainclothes security personnel and tough-looking civilians stopped about 40 people, mostly from Suu Kyi's party, as they walked quietly for two miles toward their party headquarters in eastern Yangon.
Authorities ordered bystanders, especially reporters, out of the area as the protesters outnumbered by about three-to-one were overwhelmed after a 30-minute standoff.
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