Myanmar Admits to Political Prisoners, Pledging Their Freedom

The president, U Thein Sein, also said he would show "zero tolerance" for ethnically driven violence in Myanmar, and he expressed hope that in coming weeks he would complete a cease-fire pact with the last of the major armed groups that have left the country in varying states of internal war for decades.

The president made the assertions in a speech while visiting Britain, Myanmar's former colonial power, where he met with Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a broader effort to stimulate trade and investment in his country, also known as Burma.

In the speech at Chatham House in London, a prominent international political research institution, Mr. Thein Sein said "thousands of prisoners" already had been freed. He did not specify how many were still imprisoned but said a special committee, which includes former prisoners, was reviewing the remaining cases.

"I guarantee to you that by the end of this year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar," he said.

Under Mr. Thein Sein, Myanmar has been slowly emerging from a prolonged era of isolation and repression, with new freedoms of expression, a new Constitution and elections. But there has been little talk of the political dissidents who once populated Myanmar's prisons or how many remain incarcerated. Nor have there been discussions of retribution or any formalized judicial process that would call to account the former military generals responsible.

The country's most famous former political prisoner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, spent a total of 15 years under house arrest before she was released in 2010. She is now a leader of the political opposition in Parliament and recently expressed her desire to run for president.

Myanmar's evolution toward a more open political system has undergone new convulsions in recent months over violent ethnic rifts, most notably deadly extremist attacks by the Buddhist majority against the Muslim minority, in particular a stateless Muslim group, the Rohingya.

Mr. Cameron discussed Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims with Mr. Thein Sein, joining other international leaders who have criticized the Myanmar authorities for failing to protect the sect from killings and other violence incited by hate. Mr. Cameron said he was "very keen to see greater action in terms of promoting human rights and dealing with regional conflicts," the BBC quoted him as saying in welcoming Mr. Thein Sein.

Last week the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, warned that Myanmar was confronting a "dangerous polarization" between Buddhists and Muslims.

In his Chatham House speech, Mr. Thein Sein acknowledged Myanmar's ethnic strife but said overcoming it would require time and patience. "The recent communal violence has rightly concerned the world," he said. "I promise you that we will take a zero-tolerance approach to any renewed violence and against those who fuel ethnic hatreds."

Mr. Thein Sein also sought to emphasize in his speech that Myanmar had been riven by fighting since independence from Britain in 1948. "It is the longest-running set of armed conflicts anywhere in the world," he said.

But over the past two years, Mr. Thein Sein said, his government has negotiated cease-fires with all but one of the major armed groups in Myanmar, an insurgent organization seeking independence for Myanmar's northernmost state of Kachin in the Himalayan foothills adjoining China.

"I believe we will turn a corner soon," he said. "Very possibly, over the coming weeks, we will have a nationwide cease-fire and the guns will go silent everywhere in Myanmar for the very first time in over 60 years."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-admits-to-political-prisoners-pledging-their-freedom/