The NGO Human Right Watch (HRW) has urged international governments to demand the release of all political prisoners held by Burma’s military junta, in the context of the mass release announced Thursday by the country’s authorities, which included four foreigners.
Australian economic advisor to the National League for Democracy, the Burmese political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, Sean Turnell; former British ambassador Vicky Bowman and her husband, Ko Htein Lin; Japanese journalist and documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota; and American botanist Kyaw Htay Oo are among the beneficiaries of the amnesty announced on the occasion of the National Day.
«Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and other governments should demand that the Myanmar military immediately release all political prisoners since the coup,» said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director.
«Their arrests were part of arbitrary arrests by a junta that has crushed any perceived criticism or dissent,» Pearson said, saying Turnell, Bowman and her husband, Kubota and Kyaw «should not have spent a single second in prison.»
HRW said the amnesty notice «is a relief for their families,» but said the move is «a reminder that thousands of other citizens» of the country «are being held in horrific conditions without such strong international support.»
According to the Association of Attention to Political Prisoners (AAPP) on November 16, there are more than 13,000 people detained by the military council and about 2,500 people have been killed.
