A senior Burmese prison official says more than 9,000 inmates promised freedom under the military government's prisoner release program will be freed by the end of Friday.
A senior official at Rangoon's notorious Insein prison Zaw Win, told reporters about the mass release, Friday.
Witnesses say they have only seen 1,000 prisoners released Friday. Sources tell VOA's Burmese service that of those released Friday, only three were political detainees.
Burma says the inmates were wrongly detained by the recently-disbanded security apparatus, the National Intelligence Bureau. The agency was headed by ousted Burmese Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt.
Most of those already freed are ordinary prisoners.
