Myanmar's ruling military junta has freed one of the country's best known, longest-imprisoned dissidents as part of a general release of almost 4,000 prisoners, a member of the dissident's family said yesterday.
Student activist Paw U Tun, who goes by the name Min Ko Naing, is one of several dozen political prisoners who believed to have been released since Thursday, when the junta said it was suspending the terms of 3,937 prisoners.
It said they had been wrongly charged by a state intelligence agency.
There was no indication, however, that Myanmar's most famous political prisoner -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi -- would be freed from house arrest. She has been held since May last year.
However, unconfirmed reports said at least two dozen members of Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party have also been freed.
Min Ko Naing's family members said on condition of anonymity that he was with them in the capital, Yangon, after being released from a prison in the northwest. They gave no further details.
Min Ko Naing, 42, was a zoology student at a university in the capital when he became a charismatic leader of a 1988 popular uprising against military rule, in place since a 1962 coup.
After the military violently suppressed the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail for his political activities in Myanmar, also called Burma.
The sentence was later commuted to 10 years, but he was kept in detention under a law that allows imprisonment without charges or trial.
The US Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based group that lobbies for regime change in Myanmar, said Min Ko Naing's eyesight had deteriorated badly in prison and he had a slight fever, but was otherwise well when he returned to his family.
"Needless to say, it was a happy and tearful family reunion," said a statement from the group.
The release of another prominent prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was expected yesterday. The 74-year-old has been serving a 20-year sentence in Yangon after being jailed in July 1989.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the announcement of the releases "and is encouraged by reports that a number of people detained for political activities are included among them," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York.
Freeing Myanmar's political prisoners is a major demand of the UN and Western countries critical of the junta's poor human rights record and its failure to hand power to Suu Kyi's party, which won a 1990 general election.
US State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli said Washington noted the failure to include some top dissidents, such as Suu Kyi, among those freed.
"We call upon the Burmese authorities to release these individuals and all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally," Ereli said.
British Foreign Office Minister Douglas Alexander also called for "freeing all the other political prisoners who languish in Burma's prisons."
State-run radio and television had announced on Thursday night that the prisoners had been wrongly charged by the former National Intelligence Bureau, dissolved by the junta last month.
The bureau had been headed by former Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, who was ousted on Oct. 19 and has been accused of corruption and insubordination.
Khin Nyunt's removal was believed to have been orchestrated by hardline junta members.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
RSS