NLD members detained in demonstrations in Pyi

[Zomi for Federalization and Democratization of Burma]

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The Brutal Bamar Buddhist Fascist Mercenary Terrorist Rapist (BBBFMTR)
Government is still arresting the National League for Democracy party
members, who do not commit any crime.

What the Brutal Bamar Buddhist Fascist Mercenary Terrorist Rapist
(BBBFMTR) Government is able to do is detaining people through no
fault of their own. Whom they should really arrest are the ministers
who caused power scarcity.

In Burma, those who commit crimes are not arrested; only the victims
are imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered.

When we we obey the law?
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NLD members detained in demonstrations in Pyi

Thursday, 24 May 2012 17:54 Mizzima News

Burmese police arrested five NLD members in a protest against
electrical power shortages in Pyi on Thursday. A senior official of
the National League for Democracy (NLD) said its members were taken in
custody for questioning.


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Photo:
demonstrations-in-Pyi.jpg

Police in Pyi monitor marchers demonstrating over the cut in
electricity. This picture posted on Facebook by Pon Nya shows a line
of security forces on Thursday. A number of NLD members were taken
into custody.
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NLD members were also briefly detained for questioning in Mandalay in
the early hours of Thursday, a second NLD official said, according to
a report by Reuters news agency.

In demonstrations during the past three days, the authorities have
been cooperating with marchers who have taken to the streets in
Rangoon, Mandalay and other cities in protest to a drastic loss of
electrical power. Until now, the security forces have allowed the
peaceful demonstrations to continue, and government officials said
they are doing everything they can to increase the electricity supply.

NLD official Nyan Win said about 400 people demonstrated around the
Pyi area, about 260 km (160 miles) northwest of Rangoon.

“The police tried to disperse them, and there was some rough
manhandling and some people were injured,” he said.

Ba Shi, a member of the NLD in Pyi, said a crowd had assembled outside
the town’s prison to demand their release.

State television said on Wednesday six generators purchased from the
U.S. firm Caterpillar Inc would be airfreighted within a week and two
25-megawatt gas turbines would be bought from General Electric Co to
tackle the power shortage in various cities. Urgent repairs would be
carried out on power stations damaged in fighting with ethnic Kachin
rebels, said the government, which blamed the attacks on the drop in
electrical power, along with the lack of rain to fill hydropower
reservoirs.

The spreading demonstrations could pose a serious threat to the
country’s democratic reforms. Similar grassroots protests led to the
uprisings in 1988 and 2007, when the country was under military rule.
The demonstrations illustrate the threat of pent up dissatisfaction
with the state of the country's infrastructure, which for decades
languished under the military government.

The disturbances come as Suu Kyi is planning her first foreign trip
outside the country in 24 years with a visit to neighboring Thailand
next week for an economic conference.

Thein Aung Myint, 39, one of the organizers of the Mandalay protest,
said the power supply improved there on Wedneday night, and residents
in central Rangoon said the same, Reuters said.

However, parts of all major cities are still experiencing electrical
service of up to only 6 hours a day with rolling blackouts.

The government said it would take up to two weeks to return to normal
power levels, which are woefully inadequate at best.

Power consumption in Burma, where only 25 percent of the population
has access to the national grid, is one of the lowest in the world,
averaging 104 kilowatts an hour per person, near the same level as the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal, according to the World Bank
and Asian Development Bank.


Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 May 2012 18:16 )


http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/7184-nld-members-detained-in-demonstrations-in-pyi.html

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