70 Detainees 'Released' By Burma's Junta

Can Tran October 26, 2007

As stated by an opposition party, the Burmese government has released at least seventy people. On the same day, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi has met a government official. On a separate account, the troops returned to the streets of Rangoon earlier today.

According to the NLD, those detained were kept at Insein Prison in Rangoon. One of them was Hla Pe a man in his eighties who is the senior executive for the NLD. Ever since the bloody and violent suppression of the protests, the Burmese junta has been under intense pressure and harsh criticism from the international community. While the seventy people have released, there are hundreds more that are still detained in the prisons.

At the urgency of Ibrahim Gambari the United Stations special envoy to the country, Burma’s top military generals were encouraged to engage with talks with the NLD. Gambari said that talks between Suu Kyi and the junta is the first step towards progress for the country.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for twelve years. Her party had won a victory in the 1990 elections. However, the government did not hand power over.