Burma releases 4,000 prisoners but not Suu Kyi

Burma’s ruling military junta today began releasing almost 4,000 prisoners whose detentions were ruled irrelevant or improper.

There was no indication that any political prisoners would be among those freed.

Burma is estimated to be holding more than 1,200 political prisoners, many of them associated with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.

Suu Kyi is under house arrest in the capital Rangoon, having been detained in May last year after a clash between her followers and government supporters.

An announcement said that 3,937 prisoners had been wrongly charged by the former National Intelligence Bureau, an umbrella organisation of internal security organisations that was dissolved by the junta last month.

The bureau had been headed by former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt who was ousted last month. He has since been accused of corruption and insubordination.

The freedom of political prisoners is a major demand of the UN and Western countries critical of the military regime for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically-elected government.

Suu Kyi’s party won a 1990 general election, but the military refused to hand over power.