Myanmar: More than 30 Political Prisoners Still behind Bars

There are still 33 political prisoners in Burma’s prisons despite President Thein Sein’s pledge to release all political detainees by the end of last year, reports Mizzima. Ye Aung, a spokesperson for the government-appointed Committee for Scrutinizing Political Prisoners, said that there were 125 political prisoners in Burma’s prisons in December, but most had been released under a Dec. 31 presidential amnesty order. The situation of the remaining 33 prisoners was “complicated and complex,” said another committee member, Sai Nyint Lwin. On Jan. 2, Thein Sein announced that all of the country’s political prisoners had been released. “We can do nothing but wait; we do not want to embarrass the president,” Sai Nyunt Lwin said of the remaining prisoners.