Burma Prisoner Release Public Relations, Not Reform

By Burma Campaign UK • September 19, 2012

Burma Campaign UK today accused Burma’s President Thein Sein of playing games with the lives of political prisoners, using them as pawns in his efforts to persuade the international community to lift sanctions.

An unknown number of political prisoners, thought to be less than 100, have been released this week ahead of Thein Sein’s visit to the USA. For decades the dictatorship in Burma employed a tactic of releasing some political prisoners ahead of important international summits or at times when there were discussions on increasing sanctions. Thein Sein, who from 1997 was one of the most senior members of the dictatorship, is continuing to use this tactic.

“President Thein Sein claims to be a reformer, but 18 months after becoming President there are still hundreds of political prisoners, and he has not abolished any of the laws which were used to arrest and jail them,” said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “These releases are not about reform, they are about providing a fig leaf for President Obama for him to justify lifting more sanctions, despite the fact that Burma is still not a democracy and still has one of the worst human rights records in the world.”

While Thein Sein has released hundreds of political prisoners, most have only been released conditionally, face travel restrictions, and have received no compensation or even an apology. Thein Sein has never acknowledged that they should never have been jailed in the first place. At the same time as these political prisoners have been released, hundreds of people have been arrested in Kachin and Rakhine State. Exact numbers are not known, but could easily be greater than the number of those released.

“These days the international community always takes the most positive view of what President Thein Sein does, but if you look at it from the other side, while Thein Sein decided to release some political prisoners, he also made a decision to keep most political prisoners in jail,” said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon. “For the sake of hundreds of prisoners suffering in appalling conditions, we need to move on from this slow pace of releases. An independent commission should be set up, with UN support, which can identify all those in jail for political reasons, and ensure they are released immediately.”