Myanmar frees agitators for Suu Kyi release

Yangon, June 28: Myanmar's military government has freed all but one of 52 people detained for holding prayer vigils for the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said today.

''So far as we can confirm, 51 out of the 52 have been released from four different detention camps in Yangon,'' NLD spokesman Myint Thein said.

''The only person who has not been released as yet is Phyu Phyu Thinn,'' he said, a month after they were detained.

Ko Htain Win, 26, one of those released, said Phyu Phyu Thinn, a prominent AIDS activist, had been on hunger strike since June 19, Suu Kyi's 62nd birthday, which she marked under house arrest.

''I met her at the detention centre run by the security police inside the Kyaikkasan Ground a few hours before we were released yesterday,'' he said. ''She only takes liquid food such as juice and coffee mix and she is very weak.'' Phyu Pyhu Thinn's elder sister said she was very worried.

''She is an asthmatic and we have not been able to contact her or send her any medicines since she was picked up on May 21,'' Sabay Oo said.

The prayer vigils began in May when Suu Kyi's confinement to her lakeside Yangon home was extended for another year despite international pleas for the generals, who have ruled the former Burma since 1962, to free her.

The Nobel Laureate has been confined for more than 11 of the last 17 years. She has no telephone and is allowed no visitors apart from her maid and doctor.

Ko Htain Win, another one of those freed, said a policeman had told his batch of detainees just before their release they had been arrested for attempts to disrupt the peace.

''He said we could have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment if action had been taken against us,'' he said. ''He told us to sign an undertaking to avoid similar campaigns. I didn't do it, although some did.''

Reuters

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