Myanmar's military regime freed a wounded protester in a conciliatory gesture after tensions boiled over when Buddhist monks seized a group of officials as hostages, activists said yesterday.
Ye Thein Naing, who suffered a broken leg when authorities arrested a crowd of anti-junta protesters in Yangon on Aug. 28, was released during the night after being brought to a hospital for treatment, activists said.
A group of pro-democracy supporters jailed with Ye Thein Naing had staged a week-long hunger strike to demand medical attention for him, but they resumed eating after he was taken to hospital on Wednesday, activists said.
PHOTO: AP
Myanmar's military, which has ruled with an iron fist for 45 years, rarely shows such concern for the more than 1,000 political prisoners believed held in the nation's jails.
Rights groups frequently denounce the regime for refusing prisoners access to medical treatment. The Red Cross has not been allowed to visit Myanmar's prisons for nearly two years.
"This time they let the person go to the hospital and release him -- it's a small concession. They are worried that things could escalate" after the hostage crisis on Thursday at the monastery, Thailand-based analyst Win Min said.
The showdown in Pakokku, about 500km north of Yangon, was the most serious confrontation since protests began on Aug. 19.
Twenty government and security officials were held hostage for several hours, as monks torched four of their cars.
After the officials were freed, about a dozen monks marched through the town and trashed an electronics shop owned by a local militia leader.
The monks were enraged after soldiers fired warning shots into the air to break up a march on Wednesday, when some 300 Buddhist clergy walked through the streets praying in solidarity with the people after a massive hike in fuel prices.
Pro-junta militia then beat the crowd with bamboo sticks, according to residents, who lined the streets to cheer the monks' march and the hostage-taking.
Pakokku is a major center of Buddhist learning in Myanmar, and analysts said the crisis at the monastery raised the risk that other teaching temples around the country could mobilize their monks.
The military and the Buddhist clergy are the two most important institutions in Myanmar and the only groups that maintain networks stretching across the entire country formerly known as Burma.
Monks were credited with rallying popular support for a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, which was crushed by the military, when soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing hundreds, if not thousands.
In an unusually swift commentary on the situation in Pakokku,state media on Friday accused the monks of trying "to create public outrage in order to intentionally incite a mass protest like '88 unrest."
The protests last month were spearheaded by student leaders of the 1988 uprising, who spent more than a decade in prison but were released over the last three years.
The latest crackdown sparked an international outcry.
US President George W. Bush attacked the regime while attending the APEC summit in Sydney.
"We must press the regime in Burma to stop arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," he said yesterday.
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