Dozens of Myanmar activists shouted messages to relatives from packed prison vans outside a court after being detained in a violent student protest crackdown that sparked international condemnation and fears of a return to junta-era repression.
Student-led rallies calling for education reform have twice been brutally suppressed in recent days, drawing fierce criticism from overseas and Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition, which said the tactics echoed those used under the former military government.
In chaotic scenes on Tuesday, police armed with batons lashed out at students and activists in the central town of Letpadan, arresting 127 people and carting them off to prison by the truckload.
Scores of activists appeared at a court in the town Wednesday for a hearing that was inaccessible even to family members.
"Our human rights have been violated!" shouted the detained activists, some sporting visible injuries, as they were whisked away from the court, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
Family members said the group of 20 women and 40 men faced five separate charges relating to the protests, with another hearing on March 25. It was unclear whether the other detainees have already been to court or are set to do so.
Myanmar's information ministry late Wednesday said "action will be taken" against those activists considered "masterminds" of the rally, in a statement on its website.
But current university students would be released "with kindness so they can continue their education" in the care of their parents, it said without giving further details.
Ten monks are also set to be sent back to their monastery.
"We are worried for our daughter's situation. We have heard that she was beaten," Ne Win, the father of graduate and activist Phyo Phyo Aung, told AFP earlier, as he waited outside Tharrawaddy prison, where most protesters are believed to be held.
Students have long been at the forefront of political action in the former military-run nation's turbulent history, leading mass protests in 1988 that saw the rise of Suu Kyi and her party but which were brutally quashed by the military.
The European Union, which has run programmes to train Myanmar's decrepit police force, issued a statement voicing concern at the crackdowns, while the United States and Britain also expressed alarm.
Phone Piay Kywe, one of only two activists thought to have been released from detention, said police beatings had continued even after demonstrators were held.
