Police officers arrested dozens of protestors in eastern Myanmar who now face charges of unlawful assembly, an activist leader said on Friday, after police broke up the latest protest against a statue of Aung San, the nation's independence hero and father of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to Channel News Asia.

Police arrested 36 people on Thursday outside the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the Kayah state capital of Loikaw, said Di Di, spokesman for the Karenni Youth Force Protest Camp Committee.

Another 10 people were arrested on Friday, he said. A video posted on Facebook by another group, the Union of Karenni State Youth, showed police pulling away young men and women who were sitting in a circle singing a protest song.

Protests over the statue began last year. Although Aung San is credited with bringing the country’s minorities together before his assassination in 1947, some minority groups complain that the goal of a fair federal system has yet to be achieved.

Dozens of protestors have been charged since the protests against the statue began mid-2018.

If the latest protestors are convicted, they could spend six months in jail.