Freedom bitter-sweet for Myanmar activist

For veteran dissident Ko Ko Gyi, freedom after almost two decades behind bars has brought guarded optimism about Myanmar's future, and no thoughts of revenge against the regime.

The former student activist, one of hundreds of political prisoners released in January in the country formerly known as Burma, said that he was ready for reconciliation if the quasi-civilian government continues its reforms.

"We had a bitter experience for a very long time, but we can forgive, not only myself, but also my comrades," he told AFP in an interview.

"We do not want to dwell on the past, but instead face the brighter future... It is not going to be easy to forget, and we say that if we have to engage in politics the time is now, not in the past."

Ko Ko Gyi said he and other prominent former student leaders who were at the vanguard of a failed 1988 uprising would give their full support to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is standing for a seat in parliament for the first time in April 1 by-elections, as well as to a new generation of activists.

"There is now a change of guard on the streets from us to the younger generation," he said.

"I am now 50 for example. I am now more engaged in politics in this democratic space, but we welcome the involvement of more and more younger students to this cause."

He said his group would engage with civil society and pointed to the government's decision last year to halt a Chinese-backed mega-dam in response to public opposition as an example of the potential of people power.

But more than a month after he was freed along with hundreds of other political detainees, Ko Ko Gyi said he had yet to enjoy true liberty.

"Freedom? There is no new freedom. Sometimes they are still watching," he said at his home in Yangon, referring to intelligence agents in civilian clothes he believes have been assigned to watch him.

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Freedom bitter-sweet for Myanmar activist