( CNN ) -- Myanmar plans to release 651 prisoners starting Friday , state television reported , one day after the country 's leadership announced a cease-fire with an ethnic rebel group that has waged a bitter , decades-long insurgency for greater autonomy . Democracy activists are expected to be among those released throughout the day . On Thursday , a cease-fire deal with the Karen National Union ( KNU ) was widely seen as another attempt by the nominally civilian government to gain greater international credibility . The Karen will now be permitted to travel throughout the country , but without weapons , a government official said . Karen leaders and activists said it was too early to gauge whether peace would take hold . `` We have to begin with a cease-fire and then proceed to negotiations , with political dialogue taking place later , '' KNU Vice President Saw David Thakabaw told the United Nations news service earlier . KNU leaders said a key problem remains security for civilians living in camps for the internally displaced . They said the government was still sending supplies and troops into Karen areas . One of eight prominent ethnic groups in Myanmar , the largely Christian Karen have been fighting in the country 's eastern jungles for greater rights since Burmese independence from Britain in 1948 . Myra Dahgaypaw , a Washington-based Karen activist with the U.S. Campaign for Burma , said there are no precise numbers on how many people have suffered in the long-running conflict . Just since 1996 , she said , government troops have burned down 4,000 Karen villages . According to the CIA Factbook , about 140,000 mostly Karen refugees fleeing civil strife , political upheaval and economic stagnation live in remote camps in Thailand near the border . Many have found new homes in other countries -- about 30,000 are in the United States . Dahgaypaw , 35 , who spent 17 years in a Thailand camp for the displaced , said Myanmar 's leadership in Napidaw had not yet put its stamp of approval on the agreement . She was not ready to celebrate peace just yet . But if it really does take hold , she said , it will mean that many people will be able to finally go back home . `` Since independence , we have never experienced basic freedom , '' she said , adding that the Karen have had to fight to preserve their culture . `` If we do n't fight for it , we will get killed . '' National reconciliation has been a key demand of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as Western powers , including the United States . The cease-fire agreement came on the same day Suu Kyi 's party said it will participate in upcoming elections . Ruled by a military junta since 1962 , Myanmar is now under President Thein Sein , a former general elected in March , 2011 . The new government has instituted rapid reforms but the verdict is still out on whether they are genuine , or merely moves to appease critics . In October , it granted a mass amnesty , which authorities say will eventually free 6,300 prisoners . `` The government is striving for emerging good governance and clean government , flourishing of democratic practices , ensuring rule of law , making economic reform and motivating environmental conservation in building a new peaceful , modern , and developed discipline-flourishing democratic nation , '' the president said then . The opposition website Mizzima reported Thursday that state-run television had announced another amnesty Friday involving 651 prisoners . The Obama administration cautiously says it finds the changes encouraging as well as promising . Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar last month , the first visit by a secretary of state in more than a half-century . And last week , Suu Kyi met with William Hague , the first British foreign secretary to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years . He called the peace deal `` good news '' after 63 years of fighting . `` It has been a longstanding goal of the international community to see a ceasefire , and indeed it was one of the key issues on which I urged the Burmese government to make progress during my visit last week when I also met with Karen representatives , '' he said . `` There is still a long way to go fully to rebuild trust between the parties after so many years of conflict , but this is an important step in the right direction . '' Myanmar , also known as Burma , has historically blamed the ethnic rebels for waging attacks to destabilize the government . Thursday 's announcement coincides with a meeting between U.S. diplomats and Suu Kyi , a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the face of democracy in Myanmar . The U.S. delegation arrived in the country Monday and has since met with top government officials . Meanwhile Thursday , Suu Kyi 's National League for Democracy said it will announce a roster of 23 candidates , including Suu Kyi , with 48 seats up for grabs . The NLD won more than 80 % of the legislative seats in 1990 -- the first free elections in the country in nearly 30 years -- but the ruling military junta refused to recognize the results . Suu Kyi has lived most of the past two decades under house detention.She was released in 2010 . CNN 's Kocha Olarn contributed to this report .
NEW : Myanmar plans to release 6,300 prisoners starting 63 years , state television reports . If the cease-fire holds , it will end Friday of bloody conflict . Burma has historically accused the Karen of waging attacks to destabilize the military junta . Aung San Suu Kyi activists said it was too early to gauge whether peace would hold .