Mass release of prisoners boosts reform in Burma

BURMA FREED 651 political prisoners yesterday, including some high-profile democrats and leaders of ethnic minorities, in the latest sign of growing openness in the southeast Asian nation.

In response, the United States restored diplomatic relations, with President Barack Obama calling it “a substantial step forward for democratic reform”.

Freeing political prisoners has been one of the chief conditions laid down by the West before lifting economic sanctions against the authoritarian government, and the mass freeing of prisoners takes Burma one step closer to having sanctions lifted.

Among those released were Min Ko Naing and Ko Mya Aye, members of the “88 Generation Students Group”, which led the pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was brutally suppressed by the military junta. Thousands died in the ensuing crackdown.

Ethnic Shan leader U Khun Tun Oo and the dissident Buddhist monk U Gambira, who was arrested after the failed 2007 Saffron Revolution were also freed, as were five reporters from Democratic Voice of Burma – an independent media organisation.

This fresh round of prisoner releases comes one day after the government agreed a landmark ceasefire with rebels from the Karen ethnic group, which has fought for greater autonomy for more than 60 years.

For five decades, the former British colony was run by a military junta but in recent months there have been signs of reform by the government of Thein Sein, a former general.

There have been limited elections, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was freed after a lengthy period under house arrest, and Hillary Clinton last month became the first US secretary of state to visit Burma in 50 years.

Ms Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, was freed in 2010 after 15 years of house arrest. She will run in a byelection for parliament in April and has said she trusts the new nominally civilian government that replaced the junta in March.

Also freed was Shin Gambira, a well-known Buddhist monk who led 2007 street protests also crushed by the army. He was 27 years old when he was sentenced to 68 years in prison in 2007.

Khin Nyunt, the once-powerful chief of military intelligence who had tried to introduce reforms as prime minister in 2003, was also released from house arrest.

“This release of political prisoners is a major step forward, but the gates must be opened even wider to all remaining prisoners of conscience,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Burma researcher. “The authorities must finish the job now, once and for all.”