Burma releases jailed dissidents

Burma's security forces keep a tight rein on dissent

The government of Burma has released 249 political prisoners, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) has said.

Prominent dissidents and NLD activists are among those to have been freed.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi - who recently marked her 60th birthday - remains under house arrest.

Burma's military junta has come under renewed pressure to end rights abuses and allow a return to democracy as it prepares to lead a regional trade bloc.

The US and EU have protested at Rangoon's plans to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) next year, citing its poor human rights record.

They have called for the government to release Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent most of her time in detention since her NLD party won a landslide victory in elections 15 years ago.

Foreign pressure

Officials from the NLD said most of the people released on Wednesday were dissidents.

"Altogether 249 prisoners were released throughout the country... and most of them are political prisoners," spokesman Myint Thein told the AFP news agency.

Another spokesman, Nyan Win, told the Associated Press news agency 118 of these prisoners had been held at the Insein Prison in Rangoon.

Sein Ha Oo, a journalist and NLD candidate serving a 20-year jail term, was among those freed, reports say.

Khin Zaw Win, a dentist and researcher who was arrested 11 years ago as he tried to travel to Singapore, is also said to have been released.

An official from a Thailand-based organisation that tries to help Burmese dissidents said the freeing of prisoners was a government ploy to calm its foreign critics.

"We cannot say this is a promising approach to reform in Burma," Bo Kyi told the Associated Press news agency.

Rights group Amnesty International estimates the Burmese junta holds more than 1,000 people in jail for political reasons.