Myanmar: Students freed, but political prisoners remain

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar

After more than a year in detention, 69 students and their supporters were among more than 2000 people freed from detention in Myanmar on Friday.

The students had been arrested in March last year during a march on commercial capital Yangon to call for academic freedoms.

Political prisoners, however -- which newly appointed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has said she will work to grant an amnesty -- remained in jail.

A spokesperson for the president's office told Anadolu Agency that the government was working to free them over the New Year (Thingyan) break.

“We are working with the home affairs ministry to release the political prisoners who are still behind bars, and with the local authority and courts to close the cases against political activists and student protesters,” he said.

He warned, however, that it would take time.

“We will keep working on it during Thingyan New Year holidays."

On Friday, Judge Kyaw Swar Nyein told Anadolu Agency by phone that a district court in Tharyarwady township had announced that the students could go free.

“The court closed the cases as police made the request to the court that charges be dropped,” Kyaw Swar Nyein said.

According to local media, a further 2,100 inmates – who have already served their terms -- were also released from prisons across the country.

Irrawaddy Magazine reported that 400 inmates were released from Obo prison in Mandalay – the second largest city in Myanmar – however there were no political prisoners among them.

However, of the 108 prisoners released from Insein prison in Yangon, one was a political prisoner. Thet Wai -- jailed for protesting for the release of political prisoners activists -- had already served a six-month jail term.

The releases occurred just one day after Suu Kyi said that the new government was working on ways to grant amnesty to political prisoners and activists awaiting trial during Thingyan.

An accompanying statement called the release of prisoners of conscience a priority of the new government, saying that the National League for Democracy's (NLD's) wide margin of victory in the Nov. 8 elections signified that the decision had been re-affirmed by the will of the people.

The NLD has long advocated for political prisoners.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Myanmar still has 526 political prisoners, around 100 of whom have been convicted and are serving prison sentences.

The group -- which tracks the plight of jailed dissidents in Myanmar -- says that around 400 others were arrested relatively recently and are awaiting trial.

The New Year festival runs from April 13-17.