Riot police surrounded Burma’s main prison today as the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi resumed.

BURMA’S longest-serving political prisoner was among more than 9,000 inmates freed yesterday, days before the first anniversary of the junta’s deadly crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.

A United Nations investigator said today his five-day mission to Burma had enabled him to determine the number of people killed and detained in the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

Burma’s military junta released at least 19 political prisoners, including pro-democracy party members, as part of a group of nearly 4,000 inmates it said were wrongly charged by an intelligence agency.