11 December (AP) - Two prominent pro-democracy leaders were among hundreds of prisoners released from a Myanmar prison Sunday as part of a broad amnesty granted by the country's ruling junta, the prisoners and family members said.

Htwe Myint, the 76-year-old chairman of the now-defunct Democracy party, and Thu Wai, 73, one of the party's senior members, were driven together in a van from the prison, Thu Wai told The Associated Press. Both had been imprisoned there since 1995.

It was not immediately known when they were scheduled to complete their sentences. The pair were released from Yangon's Insein prison a day after Myanmar's military rulers announced that 5,070 prisoners have had their sentences suspended and will be freed from jails around the country - the third such amnesty in recent weeks.

Thu Wai, who had been imprisoned previously, said he was in good health. Htwe Myint said he was suffering from a heart problem and Parkinson's disease.

They were released along with about 20 truckloads of prisoners seen leaving Insein starting early Sunday, according to reporters and family members waiting outside. Each truck carried about 40 prisoners.

The NLD's leader, the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest in the capital, and there was no indication she would be freed. She has been detained since a bloody clash between her followers and government supporters in May last year.

[Main][News Archieve]

NCGUB Information Office
1319 F Street, N.W., Suite 303 Washington D.C. 20004, USA, Tel: (202) 639-0639 Fax: (202) 639-0638
Email NCGUB or Web Editor