About 50 Burmese factory workers and activists involved in a protest march that ended in scuffles with security forces this week have been charged with rioting, police said yesterday.
The latest move by authorities to punish demonstrators from recent rallies comes despite efforts by Aung San Suu Kyi’s new civilian-led government to amend draconian protest laws as the country tries to shake off the repressive legacy of the former junta.
The labor protesters were on Wednesday blocked by a wall of police as they tried to complete an unauthorized march into the capital, Naypyidaw. They had walked for three weeks in searing temperatures from the northern Sagaing Region, where about 100 workers have recently been fired from a timber factory.
Photo: EPA
Scuffles broke out as they were detained.
Authorities said they had initially planned to charge just the rally leaders, but the remaining demonstrators had insisted on all being prosecuted together.
“Now around 50 of them have been charged with ... joining in or continuing an unlawful assembly and rioting,” Naypyidaw region police head Ko Ko Aung said.
He told reporters that authorities had banned the march into the capital on the grounds of national security.
About 20 other protesters were sent home soon after the police clampdown.
Naypyidaw was built 10 years ago in remote tropical scrubland by Myanmar’s former military rulers.
It is still considered a stronghold of the army, despite playing host to the country’s parliament and its first elected civilian government in half a century.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party is stacked with former dissidents who served prison time for their opposition to Myanmar’s military governments.
Since taking the helm following a landslide election victory in November last year, the administration has freed scores of activists and political prisoners and signaled its determination to repeal oppressive laws.
However, rights groups have expressed concern over efforts to amend the Peaceful Assembly Act, fearing it could continue to penalize non-violent demonstrations, albeit with shorter jail terms.
Lawmakers debated the amendment in parliament on Thursday calling for further changes, but have not yet voted on the issue.
Earlier this week police officials announced plans to take action against five leaders of an interfaith rally in Yangon, because the campaigners had deviated from the agreed protest route.
Yangon police have also begun legal action against seven leaders of an unauthorized protest by Buddhist nationalists outside the US embassy last month.
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying