Police in military-ruled Burma detained a Westerner who was staging a protest in a busy downtown area of the capital, witnesses said Saturday.
A foreign male carrying some signs was taken into custody Friday afternoon just minutes after placing himself outside City Hall, said the witnesses, who insisted on anonymity. They said they did not get an opportunity to read the slogans.
The protest was likely political in nature, since the location is traditionally used by local residents protesting the military government’s poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
A local official, who also insisted on not being named, said the detained man was a US citizen, but would not elaborate. No US diplomats were willing to comment about the matter, but an embassy employee said the man left Burma on Saturday.
The ruling junta tolerates little dissent, and public protests are rare. Those that do take place are usually stopped in minutes, and protesters can receive multiyear jail sentences under national security laws.
Several foreigners have been arrested previously for staging protests inside Burma.
Rachel Goldwyn of Britain was given a seven-year prison sentence for shouting anti-government slogans in downtown Yangon in 1999, and British-Australian national James Mawdsley was given a 17-year sentence the same year for entering the country illegally and distributing anti-government leaflets. Both were released early.