Myanmar to 'grant liberty' to dissidents
2013-02-07 14:03
Yangon - Myanmar's leader has set up a committee to
review political prisoner cases "to grant them liberty", state media
said on Thursday, in a rare direct acknowledgement of dissidents in the
nation's jails.
The regime, which long denied their existence, has freed
hundreds of political detainees since President Thein Sein took power in March
2011, and announced a review of all "politically concerned" cases in
November last year.
The latest statement referred specifically to
"political prisoners" and pledged to define who is a "prisoner
of conscience" among those jailed - many for several years or more - and
work towards their release.
The committee members are yet to be picked, but will be
made up of government representatives as well as civil society groups and other
political party members, the statement in the English-language New Light of
Myanmar said.
Presidential spokesperson Ye Htut said the issue of
prisoner releases was key towards achieving "national reconciliation".
But first, "it is important to decide who will be
designated as political prisoners", he told AFP.
The government pledged the case review last year, and
promised to allow the Red Cross to resume its prison visits, in a bid to
burnish its reform credentials ahead of a landmark visit by US President Barack
Obama in November.
In response to the country's political reforms, the West
has begun rolling back sanctions and foreign firms are lining up to invest in
the country.
Rights groups have accused Myanmar of wrongfully
imprisoning some 2 000 political opponents, dissidents and journalists during
decades of authoritarian junta rule.
Estimates of the number of political detainees still
locked up vary but the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a
Thailand-based campaign group, put the figure at 222 in a list posted on its
website last month.
- SAPA
