Myanmar party official dies after arrest, hundreds escape night raid

Myanmar authorities cordoned off part of the commercial capital of Yangon on Monday night while searching for student protesters, drawing international condemnation as crowds defied a curfew to resist the crackdown.

Embassies of the US, UK, Canada, Germany and others sent tweets late on Monday warning that security forces had surrounded a group of young people in the Sanchaung neighborhood of Yangon. People in surrounding areas swarmed the streets as videos of the situation spread on social media.

Meanwhile, an official from adeposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) died in custody after he was arrested early on Tuesday, a former parliamentarian said, the second party figure to die in detention in two days as protesters challenged last month's military coup in the streets.

By midnight, there were no reports of deaths from the standoff, the Associated Press reported. Security forces chased crowds, fired stun grenades and harassed residents watching from their windows, it said. Myanmar has regularly shut down the internet in the early-morning hours, making it difficult to get information.

Residents said security forces used sound bombs, slingshots, tear gas shells and fired warning shots to disperse several hundred peaceful protesters in the Sanchaung area.

“They blocked all the four main roads so these protesters had nowhere to go but to run into nearby apartments and hide inside the apartments with the support of house owners,” said Zaw Moe Aung, a resident. “They were raising their voices very peacefully, chanting to release detained leaders and immediately end the military dictatorship.”

The troops, who stayed in the neighborhood late into the night, also threatened to enter home and buildings to search for the demonstrators, according to Myo Win Maung, who witnessed the scenes but eventually left after locals and people from other Yangon neighborhoods poured into the streets to protect the protesters.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy issued a statement in support of the protesters and decried the violence against them. “We warn against such efforts which must end soonest,” the statement said.

“The Embassy is very concerned about reports of many young people being trapped in Sanchaung and other parts of Yangon,” the German Embassy in Yangon said. “We urgently appeal to the security forces to abstain from the use of force and detentions against residents and others, and to let all peaceful protesters return to their homes immediately.”

Overnight, police arrested about 50 people who had been cornered by security forces in a district of Myanmar's main city Yangon, a rights group said. But hundreds managed to escape the encirclement after crowds of demonstrators rallied in their support in defiance of a night-time curfew.

Western powers and the United Nations had called on the military to allow the youths to leave the area in safety.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the army ousted Suu Kyi's elected government in a coup on Feb. 1, detained her and other NLD officials, and set up a ruling junta of generals.

Daily protests against the coup are being staged across the country and security forces have cracked down harshly. More than 60 protesters have been killed and more than 1,800 detained, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an advocacy group, has said.

The NLD's Zaw Myat Linn died in custody on Tuesday after he was arrested in Yangon around 1:30 a.m., said Ba Myo Thein, a member of the dissolved upper house of parliament.

"He's been participating continuously in the protests," Ba Myo Thein said. "Now, the relatives are trying to retrieve the body at the Military Hospital."

Neither the military nor the police responded to calls for comment.