YANGON – Hundreds of people imprisoned for protesting last month’s coup were released Wednesday in the first apparent gesture by the military to try to placate the protest movement.
Witnesses outside Insein Prison in Yangon saw busloads of mostly young people, looking happy with some flashing the three-finger gesture of defiance adopted by the protest movement.
State-run TV said a total of 628 were freed. The prisoners appear to be the hundreds of students detained in early March while demonstrating against the Feb.
1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. One lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity because she doesn’t want attention from the authorities, said all those released were arrested on March 3.