25 dissidents freed in Myanmar mass prisoner release

At least 25 dissidents freed in Myanmar mass prisoner release

January 4 (AFP) - At least 25 political prisoners have been released in military-ruled Myanmar, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party said Tuesday, including two party MPs and three journalists.

NLD parliamentarians Ohon Kyaing and Kyaw Khin were released after
serving 15 years and nine years in prison respectively, along with six other party members, said a list released at the party's headquarters.

The NLD said three journalists were among 17 other dissidents freed including sports reporter Zaw Thet Htwe who had already had a death sentence commuted to life.

France-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the release of journalists Zaw Thet Htwe, Thein Tan and Aung Myint in a statement Tuesday but called on the junta to "release nine other journalists, including the most prominent of them, U Win Tin".

Those freed were among 5,588 inmates released Monday on what state radio described as "humanitarian grounds" and in time for Tuesday's celebrations to mark the country's independence from Britain 57 years ago.

The latest release brings to 19,906 the number of prisoners, mainly believed to be petty criminals, whom authorities say they have set free since November 18.

Some 400 NLD members celebrated independence day with diplomats from countries including the US, Britain and Japan at its party headquarters in Yangon Tuesday.

A source said this year's celebrations took on a sombre atmosphere as those present held one minute of silence for the victims of the Asian tsunami.

An NLD statement released at the event called on the junta to enter into dialogue with "the political parties representing the people" and to release all political prisoners, which the party estimates to be about 400, including 135 NLD members.

About 50 dissidents are believed to have been freed by the junta in the three previous releases.

This week's gesture differs from the previous three mass releases. They were due to what the junta described as "irregularities" in arrests by a military intelligence organisation.

From the beginning of the releases in November the junta has acknowledged that the inmates may have been wrongly imprisoned by the powerful National Intelligence Bureau.

The bureau was disbanded in October in a purge that saw its former head, premier General Khin Nyunt, sacked and placed under house arrest for corruption.

Khin Nyunt was seen as a pragmatist who favoured limited talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate currently under house arrest. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 despite a landslide election victory by the NLD in 1990 that was never recognised.

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