6,000 prisoners freed but Burmese activists demand full amnesty

By Aye Aye Win, in Rangoon
Published on Thursday 13 October 2011 00:08

Burma freed an outspoken critic and a major ethnic rebel as it began releasing 6,300 convicts yesterday in its latest liberalising move, but kept some political detainees behind bars, dampening hopes for a broader amnesty.

It was not clear how many of the country’s estimated 2,000 political detainees were included in the amnesty – one estimate said only 206 of them were freed. But the released included ailing Shan Army commander Hso Hten and popular comedian Zarganar, imprisoned after criticising government response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

“I will be happy and I will thank the government only when all of my friends are freed,” Zarganar said after his release in Kachin State.

Those held back included student leaders from Burma’s failed 1988 democracy uprising and a blogger serving a 12-year prison sentence.

Western governments, the UN and Burma’s opposition have eagerly awaited a political amnesty as a gesture of liberalisation by the government after decades of military rule.

A failure to follow through on those hopes could hamper the country’s efforts to improve its human rights record and win a lifting of sanctions.

Families held reunions outside prisons around the country a day after the country’s civilian president declared an amnesty for 6,359 inmates – many of them ordinary criminals – on humanitarian grounds, but without disclosing any names.

“The freedom of each individual is invaluable, but I wish that all political prisoners would be released,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy confirmed the release of 155 political detainees, including members of the party, spokesman Nyan Win said.

President Thein Sein, a retired army officer who took office in March, has launched a series of economic reforms and relaxed censorship and unblocked banned websites.

He also has started a dialogue with Ms Suu Kyi, made calls for peace with ethnic minority rebel groups and suspended a controversial Chinese-backed hydropower dam project after a public outcry.

“The pace of change is much faster than I would have expected,” said Monique Skidmore, a Burma expert at the University of Canberra. “Thein Sein must be feeling pretty secure.”

But she added that Mr Sein knew the release of political prisoners must be comprehensive, “otherwise there will be no end to sanctions.”

Amnesty International called the releases a “minimum first step,” and said the authorities “must immediately and unconditionally release all remaining prisoners of conscience”.

The activist Zarganar had been serving a 35-year sentence in Myitkyina prison.

He was detained after giving interviews criticising the former military rulers for being slow to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which left nearly 140,000 people dead or missing.

“I am not happy at all, as none of my 14 so-called political prisoner friends from Myitkyina prison are among those freed today,” he said as he waited to board a plane to Rangoon.