Burmese authorities have arrested seven protesters for handing out leaflets and demanding the release of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on the first anniversary of her detention, according to witnesses.
Security men swooped on a young woman who staged a solo protest outside Rangoon's city hall on Sunday in a rare public display of opposition against the ruling military junta.
"She was standing on the road calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo and other political prisoners," a witness told journalists.
In two other incidents, six men were arrested in the capital for distributing leaflets citing a UN human rights declaration.
Ms Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and the party's vice chairman, Tin Oo, remain under house arrest in Rangoon a year after violence on May 30th last year triggered a crackdown on the opposition.
NLD officials said today they did not know anything about the protests or the people involved.
The United States says Ms Suu Kyi and her convoy were ambushed and attacked by "government-affiliated thugs" while on a tour of the north. There has been no official inquiry into the incident, despite calls from international rights groups and the United Nations.
The military blamed the violence on Ms Suu Kyi and placed her and other senior NLD leaders in "protective custody". It said only a handful of people died, but some NLD officials believe up to 100 of their supporters were killed.
Burma, renamed Myanmar by the military junta, is a former British colony ruled by the military in various guises since a 1962 coup. It is under growing pressure from around the world to free Ms Suu Kyi and include her party in constitutional talks that began on May 17th.