Mizzima: Five of the Migyaungkan land-confiscation protesters, who have been camped out for two weeks in front of Yangon City Hall, have been charged with obstruction, according to the Yangon police.
Police Colonel Win Bo, deputy police commander of Yangon Region Police Force, summoned five protestors on December 22 to the office of the Yangon City Development Committee YCDC and informed them about the charges against them.
Police Colonel Win Bo said as more days pass in which they cause an obstruction, the larger the penalty they will incur.
“I told them how many days [of the activity] can carry how much penalty because they might not know. I informed them they need to face the law. But we will not disband the Migyaungkan protest,” he told the media.
The protesters ran into trouble after U Maung Maung Zaw, head of the Yangon City Development Committee Administration Department, brought a case on December 12.
Filing a case with the Kyauktada Township Police Force he said the Migyaungkan protestors blocked the entrance-exit gate for the staff of the YCDC in front of the Yangon City Hall from around 4:15 pm on the day.
The group shouted slogans and lit candles and therefore their activities disturbed the staff of the YCDC and affected their duties.
The protesters are charged under sections 341, 342 and 343 of the Penal Code concerning various degrees of restraint and confinement, which can result in various lengths of imprisonment and a fine.
Daw Khin Khin Win, one of the protestors, said they came to Yangon City Hall because they were told that the authorities would discuss their land confiscation problem and look for a solution.
“But when we arrived here, the police colonels said that we were violating the law. They talked about laws that we cannot understand,” she said.
“We will not end our protest until a solution is reached,” Daw Khin Khin Win said.
More than 30 Migyaungkan protestors have staged a protest in front of the Yangon City Hall since December 11, urging the authorities to negotiate and they are continuing their protest.
The protest concerns land plots in Migyaungkan village in eastern Yangon’s Thingangkuun Township taken over by the military in 1991.
http://mizzima.com/mizzima-news/myanmar/item/16183-five-land-grab-protesters-charged-for-blocking-yangon-city-hall
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