BURMA REGIME DETAINS MORE DEMONSTRATORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 000248 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BM SUBJECT: BURMA REGIME DETAINS MORE DEMONSTRATORS REF: A. RANGOON 211 ¶B. RANGOON 185 Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On the evening of March 6, Burmese authorities detained another seven participants in the February 22 protest in downtown Rangoon (ref B). Special Branch police picked up the seven from their homes around 22:00 and indicated that they would release them after further questioning. ¶2. (C) One of the demonstrators, Htin Kyaw was previously detained shortly after the February 22 demonstration, and released with the others on February 27 (ref A). After questioning Htin Kyaw for about four hours, authorities released him at 2:30am on March 7. Most of the other newly arrested demonstrators went into hiding after the February 22 arrests, and then returned home after the police released the first batch of detainees. One source said these new arrests came after some protesters gave interviews to a foreign radio broadcaster yesterday evening. ¶3. (C) Htin Kyaw told us that the additional detentions were an effort by the authorities to learn more about the organization that sponsored the demonstrations, the Myanmar Development Committee (ref B),its leaders, network, association with other pro-democracy opposition groups, and any foreign links. He speculated that the detainees would likely be released after the authorities finished questioning them. VILLAROSA