Rangoon - Thousands of Burmese prisoners die each year from starvation and sickness or are beaten to death in "slave labour camps", a group of released prisoners said yesterday.
Burma's military government freed 101 Thai prisoners yesterday in what it called a goodwill gesture to boost relations with its eastern neighbour. Most of the Thais are fishermen, locked up for more than three years in Rangoon's In Sien prison and in Mandalay after their vessels entered Burma's territorial waters.