APSN | Police break up protest by Burmese farmers

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Police break up protest by Burmese farmers

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Wai Moe – Burma's police broke up a protest by about 56 activists, mostly farmers, demonstrating in Rangoon against land confiscation by the government, a protest that tested the limits to which President Thein Sein's new administration would allow public anti-government demonstrations.

According to a witness, four of the protesters were taken away by police from outside the Department of Human Settlement and Housing in downtown Rangoon, the site of the protest.

It is currently unclear whether protest leader Phoe Phyu, an activist human rights lawyer and advocate who often represents farmers whose land has been confiscated, was one of those detained at the time.

These same farmers have been protesting against land confiscation since 2008, when about 10,000 acres of land in South Dagon Myothit Township and East Dagon Myothit Township in northern Rangoon were taken by 11 companies reportedly owned by government cronies.

In January, about 200 farmers also conducted a peaceful protest against land confiscation in front of the office of the Rangoon Eastern District Administration, which includes the Dagon Myothit townships. However, government authorities have ignored the farmers' demands thus far.