Pro-democracy activists hold Burma fuel protest
Hundreds of pro-democracy activists marched today to protest against a massive increase in fuel prices imposed by Burma’s military regime.
About 300 protesters started marching from the outskirts of the commercial capital Yangon, encouraging onlookers to join the rare display of public opposition, witnesses said. Plain clothes police officers watched the protest from a distance.
Early today, the military regime arrested at least nine leaders of a pro-democracy group who staged another protest against the fuel price hikes, the US Campaign for Burma said in a statement.
The Washington-based group said virtually the entire leadership of the 88 Generation Students activist group was taken to a detention centre in Yangon at midnight.
Five university students and three members of another activist group also were arrested in separate sweeps by the authorities, the group said.
Members of the 88 Generation Students were at the forefront of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and were given lengthy prison terms after the rebellion was brutally suppressed by the military.
Burma has been widely criticised for its human rights violations including the continued house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The country has been under military control since 1962.
