BANGKOK (AP)--A 75-year-old retired professor who got a seven-year prison sentence for staging a solo democracy protest in military-ruled Myanmar says he was released early because he was "old and harmless." Prof. Salai Tun Than was arrested Nov. 29, 2001, for handing out flyers in front of City Hall in the capital Yangon calling for multiparty elections and goading the regime to "kill an old professor" and use the academic gown he was wearing as a "shroud for my dead body." The U.S.-educated agronomist was released Sunday along with 17 other political prisoners as international criticism mounted on Myanmar for holding as many as 1,200 such detainees and making little progress in dialogue to resolve the country's political stalemate with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a telephone interview Monday from Yangon, Tun Than was guarded in his remarks. If he is convicted of another offense, he must also serve the remainder of the seven-year sentence. He said he was freed because he was "old and harmless."

But he echoed his protest call: "The best thing when there is a political impasse is to hold multiparty elections," he said. Tun Than said he had fasted for two days in Insein Prison in late April, but stopped after authorities agreed to provide a proper toilet and a clock in his wing of the prison, and end the practice of forcing inmates to wear hoods when they are moved.

Teachers are traditionally venerated in Myanmar society. Tun Than was rector of Yezin University of Agriculture in central Myanmar until his retirement in 1990.

The military has ruled for 41 years, and gunned down thousands of people during a student-led uprising for democracy in 1988. Two years later, Suu Kyi's party won elections, but the military refused to hand over power. Political protests are now very rare and often quashed within minutes.

In his protest petition, Tun Than had written: "Of course, many potential intellectuals of our high schools and universities have already been killed. It is about time that you kill an old professor." But Tun Than said Monday that he had "no political motives" when he protested, but was interested in promoting development policy. Myanmar is one of Asia's poorest countries and the economy is in tatters. He said he has been suffering from an eye disease and that his eyesight wasn't very good. "I'm going to rest for the time being and recuperate, and then later on I'll go see my friends, whoever they are," he said. Tun Than, from Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority, holds degrees in agronomy >from both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Georgia in the U.S.. He thanked activists abroad - who included students at both universities - for staging protest campaigns demanding his release.