Burmese Activists: Govt Releases Opposition Supporters

Burma's military government has released 51 activists who were arrested last month for joining a prayer vigil for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A spokesman U Myint Thien for the National League for Democracy said today that all of the activists except one were released from detention centers.

The spokesman says AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thinn is still being held and is currently on a hunger strike. In May, Phyu Phyu Thinn was arrested along with other activists for participating in a rare public gathering to protest the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi. About 200 activists joined the rally in Rangoon.

On Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also called for Phyu Phyu Thinn's release. He said Burma should unconditionally release her from jail and give her medical attention.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 17 years in detention in her home in the capital. Her political party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in 1990, but the government has never accepted those results. Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962.