Min Ko Naing

Student democracy leader Min Ko Naing said he was set free in western Myanmar and flown to Yangon to be reunited with his family after spending 16 years in detention.

The move was part of a mass release of 3,937 prisoners whom the junta admitted may have been wrongly detained, and which included several senior National League for Democracy members and other foes of Yangon's military rule, NLD spokesman U Lwin said.

NLD sources said at least two dozen NLD members and other pro-democracy figures are believed to have been freed in the move that comes less than two weeks ahead of a Southeast Asia summit where criticism of Yangon's military rule is expected.

Second only in stature among detained dissidents to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, Min Ko Naing -- whose real name is Paw U Tun -- became one of the most prominent figures to emerge from the pro-democracy student protests he led that were brutally crushed by troops in 1988.

He was arrested the following year for antigovernment activities.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 27, 2004
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