YANGON (Reuters) – Hundreds rallied for a second day in one of Myanmar’s biggest cities yesterday to protest against chronic power outages, in the largest demonstrations since the army crushed a monk-led uprising nearly five years ago.
Several hundred marched peacefully yesterday in Mandalay, 380 km (236 miles) north of the commercial capital Yangon, witnesses told Reuters, a day after about 1,000 had gathered to protest against constant power cuts.
“Two similar marches were taking place at two different places about 8 p.m,” one witness, Ko Tun Myint, a boutique owner, told Reuters by telephone.
Describing Sunday’s protest, he said demonstrators had marched in downtown Mandalay holding candles while others carried placards demanding a more regular electricity supply.
Protests are rare in Myanmar, where dissent was brutally suppressed during 49 years of military rule, which ended last March when a reformist, quasi-civilian government took office.
Demonstrations have since been legalised, although rights groups say the laws are accompanied by tight restrictions, such as the requirement to notify the authorities several days in advance of a rally.
Another witness in Monywa, northeast of Mandalay, told Reuters a similar march over power shortages was also taking place there. The details could not be immediately confirmed.
At it’s peak, the protest was the biggest since September 2007, when monks marched against military rule after troops had crushed protests sparked by sharp rises in fuel and cooking gas prices. At least 30 people were killed and hundreds were arrested and beaten.
