A clash between police and protesters outside a prison soon after a farmer was jailed in connection with a land ownership dispute has left three people hospitalised at Paungde, westernBago Region, witnesses said.
The clash erupted between about eight farmers and 30 police outside Paungde Prison at about 5pm on May 6, the witnesses said.
They said the jailed farmer was one of five who had appeared in court earlier that day to answer charges under Article 505(b) of the Penal Code, which relates to harming the national interest.
The court, at Thae Kone, granted bail to four of the farmers and the fifth, Ko Pauk Sa, was taken to the prison at nearby Paungde.
The melee began after farmers gathered outside the prison to demand Ko Pauk Sa’s release, said the witnesses.
An activist who helps farmers, Ma Zin Mar Win, told Mizzima that a man and two women were seriously hurt in the clash and were admitted to Paungde Hospital.
One of the women suffered a head injury and was breathing with the assistance of oxygen, she said.
The charges against the five defendants arose from a protest near a shrine in Thae Kone Township on April 11 by about 50 farmers who claim their land was seized for a fish farm.
During the protest, the farmers cursed four people they alleged were involved in the land seizure and whom they identified as Pyithu Hluttaw MP U Soe Aung (Union Solidarity and Development Party, Thae Kon, Bago Region), businessman U Htai Htai, and the heads of the Thae Kone Township Administration and the ThaeKone Township Co-operative Enterprise.
The farmers allege that U Htai Htai operates a fish farm on the land they say was taken from them.
