Ban urges Myanmar to free political prisoners

United Nations, Jan 9: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmar today to release all political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban, a South Korean, welcomed last week's announcement from the country's ruling military junta that it had freed 40 political prisoners among 2,831 felons released.

''The secretary-general urges the Myanmar authorities to go beyond this first step by releasing all other political prisoners in the country, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and by making further concrete progress on all of the issues raised in the context of his good offices,'' said Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in an out of house arrest since her National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was denied power.

The military has run Myanmar under various guises since 1962 and the current group of generals took power in 1988. The United Nations regularly sends an envoy to Myanmar, formerly Burma, to discuss moves toward democracy.

None of the political prisoners freed with the 2,841 felons in an amnesty celebrating Burma's independence from Britain were leading opposition figures, Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, said in Yangon. He said that of the 40, about 20 were members of the group but none were prominent or in ailing health.

REUTERS

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