Burma pardons 500 prisoners, many dissidents

Published on 19/09/2012 00:00

Burma has pardoned more than 500 prisoners in an amnesty that included at least 80 political detainees, according to activists.

An announcement on state television did not make clear if any of the 514 were political prisoners, but two groups who monitor dissidents jailed in Burma said more than 80 were given presidential pardons.

The release coincides with the arrival in Washington this week of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest and will receive a congressional medal.

It also comes ahead of a US visit by Thein Sein, Burma’s reformist president, who will head to New York on September 24 to address the UN General Assembly.