Diplomats: Burmese Prisoner Release May be Imminent

Posted October 10th, 2011 at 9:35 am (UTC-5)
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Diplomats inside and outside Burma say the new Burmese government may be preparing to start releasing political prisoners jailed by the country's former military junta.

No details have been provided. But Norwegian deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Espen Barth Eide told VOA's Burmese service that he has been told by Parliament Speaker Thura Shwe Mann that some prisoners could be released this week.

The French news agency quotes an unidentified Burmese government official as saying the release would come before President Thien Sein departs Wednesday on an official visit to India.

Western governments are demanding the release of what is thought to be more than 2,000 jailed Burmese pro-democracy activists in return for lifting economic sanctions in place for much of the past decade.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told VOA's Burmese service on Monday that, “there are clearly changes afoot” in the Southeast Asian nation and that Washington is prepared to reciprocate.

In a related development, the exile pro-democracy news magazine Irrawaddy on Monday hailed a decision last week by government censors allowing a Rangoon-based journal to publish an interview with exiled Irrawaddy editor Aung Zaw.

In an editorial, Aung Zaw, who lives in Thailand, said he was “pleasantly surprised” that censors approved the interview, which appeared in the Weekly Eleven journal. He said “I can't imagine such an interview being allowed to be published under the previous regime. He also noted Burma's history of “credible and respectful” newspapers before the military seized power in 1962, and said “it is now time to restore our credibility.

Aung Zaw has lived in exile since his release from a Burmese prison in 1992, after serving a sentence for his involvement in 1988 protests against martial law imposed that year.