Myanmar generals free five opposition leaders

Myanmar generals free five opposition leaders

BANGKOK, Nov. 23 (Reuters) - The Myanmar military government released five
senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy put  under
house arrest nearly six months ago, party officials said on Monday.

The five, all on the NLD's nine-member central executive committee,  were put
under house arrest after bloody clashes between Suu Kyi's supporters  and
government backers on May 30.

The officials said Than Tun, 82, Nyunt Wai, 81, Soe Myint, 80 and Hla  Pe, 77
-- all elected in 1990 general elections won by the NLD but ignored  by the
generals -- were freed over the weekend.

Lun Tin, 82, was released on Monday morning, leaving four central  committee
members in detention, the officials said.

Vice chairman Tin Oo was in jail in the town of Kalay and the three  others
were under house arrest in Yangon, they said.

Suu Kyi was detained in an unknown location -- for her own protection,  the
generals said -- after the May 30 violence until she went to hospital  for an
operation in September.

She was then allowed to go home under house arrest, but U.N. human  rights
envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who met her earlier this month, said Suu  Kyi
would not accept her own liberty until 35 NLD figures held since May 30 
were released.

Pinheiro said the government had released eight of the 35 and was  talking
about freeing the other 27. It was not known whether the five elderly  NLD
members freed were among the 27 because Pinheiro did not give names.

Suu Kyi's telephone at her lakeside villa in Yangon is cut off and  visitors
have to get government permission to see her.

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