Myanmar makes new mine protest arrests

Myanmar authorities said Friday they had made a fresh round of arrests in response to a spate of protests demanding an apology for last month's police crackdown on a rally at a Chinese-backed copper mine. Demonstrations have been held across the country also known as Burma in a continuing show of public anger at injuries, including severe burns, sustained by dozens of monks in a pre-dawn raid on protest camps at the mine. "Some activists were arrested for questioning," a police official told AFP, asking not to be named. He said they were picked up in the second-biggest city Mandalay for protesting without permission. Activist organisation the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, which took part in street action this week, said eight people were arrested late Thursday. Four are still in custody after refusing bail on financial grounds, said the group's Moe Htet Myay. "They said that they didn't commit any crime. We are monitoring the situation," he told AFP. Hundreds of monks, supported by activists, staged demonstrations across Myanmar Wednesday to denounce the mine crackdown, which was the toughest action against demonstrators since a reformist government came to power last year. The wife of Thein Aung Myint, one of the arrested protesters, said her husband was taken from their home in the evening and had not returned. "I think he was taken because of his involvement in the monk-led protest on December 12," said Khet Khet Tin. Last week Religious Affairs Minister Myint Maung apologised to some of the country's most senior clerics for injuries to about 99 monks, state media said. About 100 police also apologised to a group of monks in Monywa soon after the crackdown. But the moves have failed to quell public discontent. Photographs of the protesters' injuries have stirred an outcry and acted as a reminder of brutal junta-era security tactics, including the notorious crackdown on mass monk-led rallies in 2007 known as the "Saffron Revolution". The dispute at the Monywa mine centres on allegations of mass evictions and environmental damage caused by the project -- a joint venture between Chinese firm Wanbao and military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings. China insists that the contentious points have already been resolved. Eight people arrested in connection with earlier protests against the mine in recent weeks were released on bail on Tuesday.