A normally bustling Yangon market was eerily quiet on Friday — a day after a group of protesters held a rare demonstration there against Burma’s military-run government over economic hardships.
The Theingyi market is usually thronged with shoppers, with dozens of vendors outside the market also selling food and goods ranging from Chinese-made shoes to shampoo.
But the vendors were absent, with just a few customers in the market, which was open for business, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent. No policemen or plain clothed officials were seen around the market.
”People are cautious after the protest yesterday [Thursday]. That’s why we are seeing few people today,” said a taxi driver near the market in downtown Yangon.
A housewife who lives near the market told AFP that the vendors closed their businesses due to fears of more protests.
On Thursday about 25 people, holding banners calling for lower prices for basic commodities, more jobs and 24-hour electricity, staged the protest near the market.
Police detained the 40-year-old male leader, who is still in custody.
They also briefly detained three local journalists, including two working for Japanese media, who were covering the protest.
Protests are rare in Burma, under military rule since 1962, as the junta cracks down hard on any dissent. In 1989, the military junta officially changed the English version of its name from Burma to Myanmar. Burmese opposition groups continue to use the name Burma since they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government nor its authority to rename the country.
While supporters of Burma’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi often hold anti-junta rallies demanding her freedom, Thursday’s event was highly unusual as it expressed public outrage over economic woes.
”People are fed up with economic difficulties. Prices for rice, vegetables, cooking oil and fuel keep rising, but the government is not doing anything about it,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Thai-based analyst on Burma.
”Yesterday’s demonstration showed that people’s patience was running out,” he said.
The demonstrators were members of an organisation called the Myanmar Development Committee. Some were former members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy.
Aung San Suu Kyi (61) has been under house arrest at her rambling lakeside home in Yangon for most of the past 17 years.
Despite its rich natural gas and mineral resources, Burma is one of the world’s poorest nations and is subject to US and European economic sanctions because of human rights abuses and the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Decades of economic mismanagement have also worsened living conditions and the World Health Organisation has ranked Burma’s healthcare system as the world’s second worst after Sierra Leone.
Burma’s state media predictably slammed the demonstration, saying it was aimed at ”instigating external anti-government groups and foreign media to fabricate news about Myanmar”.
The protest was to cause ”public annoyance and panic. … Such a deliberate attempt was totally against the law and action might be taken against the protesters,” said the official New Light of Myanmar daily on Friday. – AFP
