Myanmar Releases 19 in Amnesty

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) — Nineteen political prisoners in Myanmar, including allies of the arrested pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and five Buddhist monks, have been freed by the military government as part of a general amnesty, an exile group said Sunday.

Officials announced the impending release of more than 6,000 inmates on Friday after a special representative from the United Nations, Tomás Ojea Quintana, ended a five-day visit, during which he called for the release of “prisoners of conscience.”

On Saturday, 16 political detainees were freed from Insein prison in Yangon and three from a prison in northern Kachin State, an exile group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), said on its Web site, www.aappb.org. The Insein group included five Buddhist monks arrested in 2003 and members of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy and other political groups.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, is among more than 2,000 people under arrest in Myanmar for their political or religious beliefs, rights groups say.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/asia/23burma.html?ref=world