There may be a new government, but some things haven’t changed. Namely, don’t protest in Naypyitaw.
Police in the capital violently cracked down on a labor protest at around 1:30pm today, beating and arresting all the protesters and their supporters, Mizzima reported.
The short-lived demonstration is believed to have been the first ever held in Napyitaw, which was built from scratch by the previous military government.
Workers from a factory in Sagaing Region were calling for a salary increase and the reinstatement of a colleague who had been fired.
A group of 120 marched from Sagaing. After some dropped out from heat exhausted, 87 were left when the protest column reached the outskirts of Naypyitaw yesterday.
Local officials reportedly told them not to enter the city. “We believe in the workers. We see they are honest. But if chaos occurs in Naypyitaw it will hurt the reputation of the capital,” U Aye Thaung, administrator for Naypyitaw’s Ottarathiri township, told the Myanmar Times.
