Thu Jun 4, 2009 2:33am EDT
YANGON, June 4 (Reuters) - Myanmar police arrested five people, including children, outside the U.S. embassy on Thursday where they had sought help for the release of a man detained by the military regime.
The two women and three children were arrested in the former capital Yangon after they held up a placard calling for the release of "our father, husband".
The identity of the detained man was not known.
The group had met with U.S. embassy officials for 15 minutes and left without incident, an embassy spokesman said.
"They were concerned about a private matter. There was no political motivation," he said.
Public protests are rare in the former Burma and the military government deals harshly with dissenting voices.
According to the Thailand-based Assisting Association for Political Prisoner (Burma), there are more than 2,000 political prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military for nearly half a century. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Valerie Lee)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSBKK365997
YANGON, June 4 (Reuters) - Myanmar police arrested five people, including children, outside the U.S. embassy on Thursday where they had sought help for the release of a man detained by the military regime.
The two women and three children were arrested in the former capital Yangon after they held up a placard calling for the release of "our father, husband".
The identity of the detained man was not known.
The group had met with U.S. embassy officials for 15 minutes and left without incident, an embassy spokesman said.
"They were concerned about a private matter. There was no political motivation," he said.
Public protests are rare in the former Burma and the military government deals harshly with dissenting voices.
According to the Thailand-based Assisting Association for Political Prisoner (Burma), there are more than 2,000 political prisoners of conscience in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military for nearly half a century. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Valerie Lee)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSBKK365997
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