Myanmar Opposition Members Held over Protest

About 10 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's political party were detained for questioning Tuesday for joining Myanmar's biggest protest in almost five years, lawmakers said.

They were later released without charge.

Around 1,500 people on Monday attended the second day of a rally in the central city of Mandalay against severe power cuts, with news of the gathering spreading on Facebook.

It is the first major demonstration since an uprising led by Buddhist monks was crushed in 2007.

People in the country formerly known as Burma are testing the boundaries of their freedom under the quasi-civilian government which took power last year after the end of decades of outright military rule.

Around 10 members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party were taken for questioning, an NLD member of parliament from Mandalay, Ohn Kyaing, told Agence France Presse.

"The authorities treated them well and released them afterwards," he said.

Protests are rare in Myanmar, where pro-democracy rallies in 1988 and 2007 triggered bloody military crackdowns.

Under a new law, one of a slew of reformist moves by President Thein Sein's government since the end of army rule, authorized protests have been permitted, but the demonstrators in Mandalay did not have approval when they began their rally over the weekend.

Carrying candles and placards, protesters gathered at two locations late Monday to vent their anger at months of electricity shortages that have left residents with as little as four hours of power a day.

"We are just asking for what we need. We have many needs that require electricity," 19-year-old protester Aye Aye Nyein told AFP by telephone.

Another demonstrator vowed: "We will protest again today (Tuesday) even if the police arrest us."

Residents accuse the government of failing to provide electricity to its citizens while selling power to neighboring China.

Only 13 percent of Myanmar's population has access to electricity, according to 2009 figures from the World Bank.

"China, give back our electricity for people living in Myanmar," read one sign held up by a protester in Mandalay.

In a rare move to placate public opinion, state-mouthpiece the New Light of Myanmar ran an article Tuesday signed by the Ministry of Electric Power explaining that high summer energy consumption had led to the shortages.

"The people are requested to understand the current situation in which electricity is being alternately supplied to the public," the English-language newspaper said, urging people to conserve power.

The report did not directly refer to the protests.

The New Light said four electricity pylons in Shan state were destroyed by ethnic rebels on Saturday, worsening the supply shortages.