YANGON: A policeman died and 42 people were injured in Myanmar yesterday during a protest by farmers over what they said was a land grab by a private company, a growing source of tension as people assert their rights after the end of military rule.
Twenty-seven police were among the injured on the sixth day of demonstrations in Maletto Village Tracts, around 40 miles (64 km) west of Yangon in the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, the rice bowl of Myanmar.
The authorities had imposed a curfew in the area when the protesters become aggressive on Tuesday but it had been ignored, a police office said.
“They just kept demanding immediate handover of the land to them and started to attack the policemen with sticks, daggers and slingshots with darts, police fired warning shots and rubber bullets.
“About 1,000 acres of land had been confiscated about 10 years ago without anything being done to it. Nothing is grown and no fish are kept there,” said Win Cho, an activist.
REUTERS
