Myanmar student activist says he and four comrades freed after more than 3 months' detention

10 January 2007 (AP) - Five student activists detained at the end of September by Myanmar's military regime were freed early Thursday, one of them reported.

Their release, at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning (1830 GMT Wednesday), came just hours after a fresh call for political freedoms in Myanmar by foreign ministers of other Southeast Asian countries at a regional meeting in the Philippines.

The five freed activists - Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeya and Pyone Cho - were members of the "88 Generation Students' Group" who had been taken in for questioning but were not formally charged with any offense.

Their release was reported by Htay Kywe in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"We are fine, he said. "We were questioned about some bombing incidents in the country and about foreign financial assistance."

"We were treated well," he added. Another of the freed men said that allegations that they were linked to terrorism and received foreign funding - which were made in detail by government officials at several press conferences - were false and not originally given as the reason for taking them in.

Min Ko Naing, said the authorities first sought to explain to them a law that threatens legal action against anyone who disrupts the country's ongoing National Convention to draft guidelines for a new constitution.

"We were told to sign an undertaking stating that we were aware of the law but we refused to sign," said Min Ko Naing. 

Htay Kywe said he had been held at police headquarters in a northern suburb of Yangon together with Min Ko Naing, and that the three others were kept in a separate place. Their whereabouts had not been made clear by the government.