Burma Releases Political Prisoners

About 100 political prisoners were released by the Burmese regime on Wednesday, as part of an earlier announced amnesty. Among them were renowned dissidents such as Win Mya Mya of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party, and Sao Hso Ten, a leader of the Shan ethnic minority group, according to The Irrawaddy newspaper.

The move was welcomed by Suu Kyi, who has recently begun a dialogue with the regime, as well as the international community. Among the most positive was the U.S. assistant secretary of state, who called it a “dramatic development.”

The EU reacted with more guarded optimism. Foreign Affairs High Representative Catherine Ashton said in a statement, “The release is a sign that the new government is committed to honoring the promise of the president to respect the rule of law and to safeguard fundamental freedoms,” but she also added, “We need to see the full picture first,” and that the EU still demands the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

Rights groups have been less than impressed by the results so far, however. Amnesty International called it “a minimum first step” in a statement.

“Unless the figure rises substantially, it will constitute a relaxation of reform efforts rather than a bold step forward,” Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Burma (also known as Myanmar) researcher, said in the statement.

Bo Kyi, joint secretary of Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPP), told The Irrawaddy that the government also needs to change its policy of denying that there are political prisoners in Burma.

“They are insulting the dignity of these prisoners by releasing them as criminal convicts,” he said.

In February 2011, the Burmese government said that there are no “political prisoners” or “prisoners of conscience” in Burma, but that those referred to in this way were in prison because they had “breached the prevailing laws and not because of their political beliefs.”

The new Burmese government under President Thein Sein took over from the military junta after an election in November 2010 that the democratic opposition described as fraudulent. U.K.-based Burma Campaign released a report in September that described the situation for political prisoners in Burma and questioned the regime’s motives for the current amnesty.

“In the past, these releases have never been an indicator that change is on the way. They have been used by the dictatorship to try and secure positive publicity in order to ease international pressure,” the report says.

Although the report recognizes the apparent progress in Burma after November 2010, it also pointed out that similar moves have been made before and then followed by harder crackdowns, and that the net population of political prisoners is not necessarily lower today than it was before the massive unrest in 2007.

“Thein Sein may be willing to make greater concessions than past rulers in order to end sanctions and gain domestic and international legitimacy. However, this is not necessarily an indication that he wants genuine democracy. Even if all political prisoners were released, attacks against ethnic populations have increased and the government has so far shown no serious will to enter into genuine dialogue with the armed ethnic political parties,” the report stated.