Authorities in Myanmar arrested several activists in the past days and broke up demonstrations sparked by the dramatic increase in fuel prices.

Myanmar's sudden increase of fuel prices last week doubled transport costs overnight, leaving many people in Yangon struggling to find enough money to get to work every day.

The actions mark one of the most sustained anti-government protests in several years, and continued despite the arrests earlier this week of 13 top pro-democracy activists.

Thursday for the third time this week demonstrators took to the streets, but police and a pro-junta mob broke up the march after a brief standoff, dragging about a dozen of the protesters into trucks and other vehicles.

International known, for violating the human rights of its citizens Myanmar's ruling junta tolerates little public dissent, sometimes sentencing activists to long jail terms for violating broadly defined security laws, such convict are Nobel Peace laureate, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi held under house arrest for 11 years.

“These arrests violate fundamental rights of assembly, association and expression, and are arbitrary and unlawful under international law,” the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Dozens of persons marched Wednesday to protest the prices' hike. The demonstration was broken up when a gang of government supporters assaulted some protesters with sticks and seized eight who were accused of being agitators, but freed unharmed.

Another incident was reported on Thursday, as 40 people, mostly from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, walked quietly without placards for about 2 miles toward the party headquarters in eastern Yangon before being stopped by a security cordon.

Even the press was greeted with foul language as they were roughed up by security personnel who shouted abusive language whilst trying to take a closer look at the situation.

During mass protests people called for an end to military rule that began in 1962 and the release of prominent pro-democracy activist Suu Kyi that was arrested several times and continues to remain in detention.