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YANGON - Myanmar's military government has released a prominent political activist detained since May for organising prayer vigils for the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The security police sent me back home at 9pm today," Phyu Phyu Thinn, 36, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday local time.
The HIV/Aids activist was the last of 52 people arrested for holding prayer vigils for Suu Kyi, whose confinement to her lakeside Yangon home was extended in May for another year despite international pleas for her release.
After her arrest on May 21, Phyu Phyu Thinn said she began a hunger strike on June 19 to demand a trial or be set free.
She resumed eating a week later after authorities promised to release her.
"I became very weak but I'm gradually picking up now," she said, pledging to resume her campaign for the release of political prisoners and better treatment for those living with HIV/Aids.
UNAids described the HIV/Aids situation in Myanmar in 2005 as "a very serious epidemic", with 360,000 men, women and children, or 1.3 per cent of adults, estimated to be infected.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, during which time its economy has collapsed.
Washington describes the current junta, believed to be holding 1100 political prisoners, as an "outpost of tyranny" and a threat to international security.
- REUTERS
