FYI<

Detained Protesters Freed
By The Irrawaddy
February 27, 2007

Nine activists arrested after staging a demonstration in central Rangoon last Thursday were freed on Tuesday.

“We were all released unconditionally,” Hla Myint Aye, one of the group, told The Irrawaddy. He said he and the others were questioned about the purpose of the demonstration during interrogation at the Aung Thabye holding center in Rangoon.

About a dozen protesters, calling themselves the Myanmar Development Committee, demonstrated at Rangoon’s Sule Pagoda last Thursday, calling on the government to improve the living conditions of the Burmese people. Several onlookers joined in the protest.

Hla Myint Aye said he and other arrested protesters had explained to the authorities the purpose of their demonstration—“to have better living conditions for the people of Burma.”

He said he and the others had been “treated decently.”

The state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar had warned earlier that the protesters faced charges of inciting a riot. The newspaper said they had created panic among nearby vendors, shoppers and passers-by and had “violated the existing law.”

Opposition groups, including the National League for Democracy, had called for the immediate release of the protesters.
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