Myanmar defends rally crackdown

Myanmar authorities have defended a crackdown on a Yangon rally that saw police and men in civilian clothes beat unarmed protesters, as security forces made fresh arrests yesterday.

In a defiant statement as authorities launched a third day of action against several demonstrations, the state-run Mirror newspaper said police acted legitimately to disperse a rally on Thursday in the heart of Yangon.

Several people were wounded in the incident and eight briefly detained.

"The authorities repeatedly asked the people to disperse. But because the protesters fought back against the authorities, there was a crackdown and some protesters were detained," the report said.

Activists have insisted it was a peaceful protest.

Their rally in Yangon, held in solidarity with a rolling student demonstration calling for education reform, comes as several groups of workers also staged strikes over pay.

In the latest arrests early yesterday, authorities in the central town of Letpadan detained five student protesters, according to activists.

"Some students sneaked out through police barriers and joined with the people who came to support our strike," student leader Min Thway Thit told AFP, adding that the situation had since calmed.

Around 50 students also gathered in Yangon in the afternoon for a peaceful demonstration that passed without incident.

Observers fear democratic reforms in Myanmar, which is gradually emerging from decades of authoritarian rule, are stalling in the run-up to a breakthrough general election slated for the end of this year.

The latest crackdown has deepened concerns that authorities have not lost the repressive reflex forged during the junta era.

Myanmar's authorities have a long history of using groups of hired civilians to violently disperse protesters -- most recently in 2007 when thugs attacked protesting monks and civilians during a period of large demonstrations that came to be known as the "Saffron Revolution".