Mom's Pissed

Burma’s most important political dissidents have been freed - the latest of a series of prisoner amnesties.

Those freed include veterans of the 1988 student protest movement, monks involved in the 2007 demonstrations and ethnic-minority activists.

The highest profile is Min Ko Naing, a leader of the failed 1988 uprising.

State TV had announced that 651 prisoners would be freed under a new presidential pardon, but did not say how many would be political prisoners.

Burma has faced calls from the international community to free more dissidents.

The BBC’s South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey says the names of those released read like a who’s who of Burma’s most prominent political detainees.

The atmosphere was buzzing. Hundreds of peopl had gathered outside the gates of Rangoon’s main Insein prison. They waited for two hours, occasionally chanting slogans - “welcome, welcome political prisoners”.

Given the stature of those set free, this could be the most significant breakthrough yet in Burma’s moves towards reform, she says.

But some Burmese exiles and campaign groups say the real test will be how much freedom recently released prisoners will have to continue their political activities, our correspondent adds.

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