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YANGON : Myanmar's military regime freed a wounded protester in a conciliatory gesture after tensions boiled over when Buddhist monks seized a group of officials as hostages, activists said Friday.
Ye Thein Naing, who suffered a broken leg when authorities arrested a crowd of anti-military protesters in Yangon on August 28, was released during the night after being brought to a hospital for treatment, activists said.
A group of pro-democracy supporters jailed with Ye Thein Naing had staged a week-long hunger strike to demand medical attention for him, but they resumed eating after he was taken to hospital on Wednesday, activists added.
Myanmar's military, which has ruled with an iron fist for 45 years, rarely shows such concern for the more than 1,000 political prisoners believed held in the nation's jails.
Rights groups frequently denounce the regime for refusing prisoners access to medical treatment. The Red Cross has not been allowed to visit Myanmar's prisons for nearly two years.
"This time they let the person go to the hospital and release him -- it's a small concession. They are worried that things could escalate" after the hostage crisis Thursday at the monastery, Thailand-based analyst Win Min said.
The showdown in Pakokku, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) north of the commercial capital Yangon, was the most serious confrontation with the regime since anti-military protests began on August 19.
Twenty government and security officials were held hostage for several hours, as monks torched four of their cars.
After the officials were freed, about a dozen monks marched through the town and trashed an electronics shop owned by a local militia leader.
The monks were enraged after soldiers fired warning shots into the air to break up a march on Wednesday, when some 300 Buddhist clergy walked through the streets praying in solidarity with the people after a massive hike in fuel prices.
Pro-military troops then beat the crowd with bamboo sticks, according to residents, who lined the streets to cheer the monks' march and the hostage-taking.
Pakokku is a major centre of Buddhist learning in Myanmar, and analysts said the crisis at the monastery raised the risk that other teaching temples around the country could mobilise their monks in protest.
The military and the Buddhist clergy are the two most important institutions in Myanmar, and the only groups which maintain networks stretching across the entire country formerly known as Burma.
Monks were credited with helping to rally popular support for a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, which was crushed by the military, when soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing hundreds, if not thousands.
In an unusually swift commentary on the situation in Pakokku, Myanmar's state media on Friday accused the monks of trying "to create public outrage in order to intentionally incite a mass protest like '88 unrest."
The initial protests last month were spearheaded by student leaders of the 1988 uprising, who spent more than a decade in prison but were released over the last three years.
The latest crackdown has sparked an international outcry, and one key protest leader Thursday urged the United Nations to take action.
US President George W. Bush attacked the regime while attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, demanding the release of all the prisoners.
"We must press the regime in Burma to stop arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," Bush said Friday.
- AFP /ls
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