At least 100 arrested in Myanmar: activists

At least 100 people have been detained over last week’s anti-government protests in Myanmar, according to exiled dissidents who released a report Monday documenting the cases.

Most of the arrests were made in Myanmar’s main city Yangon from August 21 to 25, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) said.

“I am sure those arrested are now being tortured by the junta,” said Tate Naing, the secretary of AAPP and a former political prisoner.

“We know from firsthand experience that those arrested in Burma are always brutally tortured — both physically and psychologically — immediately upon arrest,” he added.

State media in Myanmar have said that 56 people are now in detention for interrogation over last week’s protests against a massive hike in fuel prices.

The AAPP is operated by dissidents freed from Myanmar’s jails, who try to keep tabs on the estimated 1,100 political prisoners being held in the country formerly known as Burma.

Among those arrested last week was Min Ko Naing, who is considered Myanmar’s most prominent pro-democracy leader after detained opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Min Ko Naing was arrested along with 12 activists for leading about 500 protesters in a peaceful march in Yangon last Sunday — the biggest anti-government rally here in at least nine years.

They were sent to Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison in northern Yangon, where international rights groups have alleged abuse and torture are rampant.

Myanmar’s state media has said only that authorities were interrogating Min Ko Naing and the 12 others and that the junta would take legal action against them.

The 13 were members of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students group, which is made up of former student leaders who led an uprising against military rule in 1988.

That uprising, which initially began as a protest over Myanmar’s harsh economic conditions, ended with soldiers firing into a crowd of students, killing hundreds if not thousands.