Myanmar begins release of 4,000 prisoners

Myanmar junta to release nearly 4,000 prisoners

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's military government announced it had begun releasing thousands of prisoners who may have been wrongly imprisoned by a recently disbanded military intelligence unit.



State radio said 3,937 prisoners were being released from jails throughout the country. It did not say when the releases would be completed.


"It is concluded that the National Intelligence Bureau may have used irregular and improper means to put them into prison," state radio reported Thursday without giving any details on the prisoners.


The National Intelligence Bureau, which gave officers loyal to deposed premier Khin Nyunt widespread powers, was abolished late last month.


Khin Nyunt, the head of military intelligence for two decades, was ousted in mid-October and is under house arrest over corruption allegations.


His ouster was seen as a move by Than Shwe, the head of the junta known as the State Peace and Development Council, to consolidate control over the leadership and promote military hardliners.


Amnesty International in its 2004 report said more than 1,350 political prisoners remained imprisoned in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.


Myanmar has never admitted to holding political prisoners. However, under pressure from the international community, in 2002 and 2003 it freed some detainees in small groups of four or five people citing "humanitarian" reasons.


Myanmar's leadership has been riven with worsening political and business rivalry between a military intelligence faction and those from the mainstream military.


The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 despite the opposition National League for Democracy winning a landslide election in 1990.


The Asian nation has been under international pressure over human rights and democracy, in particular because of the National League for Democracy's Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, who lives under house arrest.