At least 70 people held by Burma's military junta following the huge street protests, including 50 members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, have been released, it was announced today.
They were freed yesterday, the same day that Suu Kyi met a newly appointed Burma government official as part of a UN-brokered attempt to move her and the military junta toward reconciliation.
The government had earlier said it detained about 3,000 people in connection with the protests but had released most of them. There are many reports they were mistreated in custody.
The junta, meanwhile, deployed hundreds of riot police, armed with assault rifles and tear gas in Rangoon, the country's largest city, where last month's big protests were held.
The show of force after several weeks of relative peace appeared aimed at forestalling any activities to mark the one-month anniversary of a key day in the anti-regime uprising by Buddhist monks, activists and ordinary citizens angry at the entrenched military government.
The people released yesterday had been detained at the infamous Insein Prison in Rangoon.
Among them were 10 Buddhist monks, 14 students, and 10 female party members.
Security was especially tight today at the eastern gate of the famed Shwedagon pagoda where monks were beaten as police broke up a protest last month.
Barbed wire was erected around the area while police and junta supporters also took up positions near the Sule Pagoda in the heart of the city and other sites of earlier protests.
Suu Kyi's meeting yesterday was the first she was known to have held with "minister for relations" retired major general Aung Kyi, who was appointed to the post specifically to hold talks with her.
Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to the country said the meeting was a good beginning.
"But it's only the first step, so this should lead to early resumption of talks that will lead to tangible results," he said. "She's very conscious of the difficulties her people are experiencing. Her concern is to put an end to the violence and that prisoners are released."
The protest movement began in August over the government raising fuel prices and mushroomed over several weeks into a broad-based anti-government movement pressing for democratic reforms.
After the demonstrations started attracting tens of thousands of people in Rangoon, troops quelled the mass protests with gunfire.
The government said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks.