Singapore Police Calls in Burmese Demonstrators

The Singapore police has called in 23 Burmese activists who demonstrated on Saturday in protest of the Burmese military government's increase in fuel and commodity prices.

Bo Bo Winn, a Burmese resident in Singapore, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the Singapore authorities "seem annoyed" by the demonstration.

Burmese who participated in the demonstration received a letter from police on Monday. The first group will meet with police officials on September 6 and the second group will meet on September 23.

A police spokesman quoted in The Straits Times on Sunday said it is against the law to stage a demonstration without an official permit.

“If the government takes this case seriously, we can be charged and sentenced,” said one of the demonstrators.

Singapore law makes it illegal for more than five people to congregate in public without an official permit. Many Singaporean human rights groups have criticized the law as a violation of human rights.

According to the participants, the protest was organized through e-mails to voice support for pro-democracy and human rights activists inside Burma.

The demonstrators, all dressed in white, divided into four-person groups to walk towards the City Hall MRT station from the Orchard MRT station.

Elsewhere, Burmese exiles in Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand have held demonstrations at Burmese embassies without incidents.