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YANGON: Myanmar's military government has stepped up a manhunt for pro-democracy activists after a rare string of protests, raiding homes and subjecting citizens to arbitrary searches, campaigners and residents say.
More than 10 plainclothes policemen have surrounded the home of 34-year-old labour rights campaigner Su Su Nway, who went into hiding after leading a brief demonstration last week in Yangon over soaring fuel costs.
Dozens of protesters were detained after that march, one of a series of anti-military rallies that began here two weeks ago after the generals doubled key fuel prices, and later spread to other parts of the country.
The price hike has left many workers unable to even afford bus fare in the impoverished nation formerly known as Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962.
Su Su Nway, who managed to evade arrest by jumping into a taxi, told AFP by telephone on Sunday that she was ready to stand up to the generals, who tolerate little public dissent.
"I will not hide forever. I have to stand up for our people," said the activist, who is a member of Myanmar's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Amnesty International said Friday that more than 150 people have been detained since the protests broke out on August 19.
Apart from Su Su Nway, the regime has targeted key activists including Htay Kywe, who also went into hiding after the first rally in Yangon which drew about 500 people -- the biggest anti-military march here in at least nine years.
Authorities have sent Htay Kywe's picture to every police station in the country and raided his home in Yangon, along with the homes of other protest leaders, confiscating computers, mobile phones and documents, activists say.
Since the protests broke out, passengers on highway buses have been required to get off at each checkpoint, show their ID cards and submit to checks and searches by armed policemen.
"I had to get off my bus three times during my trip from Yangon to Bago," some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the country's commercial capital, said one businessman in his 30s.
"Also I had to walk in front of policemen three times. It annoys me because every time I get on a highway bus, I have to get off at checkpoints," said the businessman, who declined to be named.
A housewife in her 50s said she had to get off her bus 10 times for police checks during a bus trip last week from the eastern Karen state to Yangon.
"Police thoroughly searched the bus and each passenger," she said.
In Yangon, small teams of plainclothes security officers are now roaming "every corner" of the city, residents say.
They can stop residents for identification checks and arrest any suspicious people on the spot, they said.
"This never happened before" August 19, said one Yangon resident, who declined to be named.
While the military government has banned citizens from riding motorcycles in Yangon, it allows security forces and police to do so, and residents here said they were seeing more "motorcycle riders" now than ever before.
Analysts say the intensified manhunt and search procedures are no surprise.
"The (military government) is very uncompromising," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thailand-based Myanmar analyst.
"The government does not tolerate any form of public dissent, and is always ready to crush demonstrations. This is the nature of this regime," he said. - AFP/ac
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