On February 12, 2019 – Union Day – some 20 demonstrators were hurt by the police in Loikaw, the capital of Kayah State. More than 3,000 mainly young people had demonstrated to protest against the installation of a bronze statue of Aung San. The protest had some significance because the holiday memorialises the Panglong Agreement signed on this day in 1947 by Aung San and leaders of some ethnic groups. Obviously, the protesters did not cherish the day as well as the document without which the Union of Myanmar would not have achieved independence on January 4 1948.
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