More than 100 political prisoners in Myanmar have been freed under an
amnesty ordered by the country's new de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
as her first official act.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday April 09,2016 cited police as saying that 113 political detainees were freed across the country. Their freedom came along with a general amnesty for ordinary convicts ahead of Myanmar's traditional New Year festival, often the occasion for prisoner releases.
The move was praised by human rights advocates, but a jarring note was struck when two peace activists the same day Friday April 08,2016 were each sentenced to two years with hard labor for activities bringing them into contact with an armed ethnic rebel group that has been battling the central government.
A court in the central city of Mandalay sentenced Zaw Zaw Latt and Pwint Phyu Latt under a law barring associating with an unlawful organization for their contacts with the Kachin Independence Army, a guerrilla group in the country's far north. Both were already sentenced in February to two years' imprisonment for immigration law violations.
The two are members of an interfaith religious organization and said that they had been seeking to help refugees from fighting. Both are also Muslims, a minority that has faced increasing pressure and violence in recent years in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday April 09,2016 cited police as saying that 113 political detainees were freed across the country. Their freedom came along with a general amnesty for ordinary convicts ahead of Myanmar's traditional New Year festival, often the occasion for prisoner releases.
The move was praised by human rights advocates, but a jarring note was struck when two peace activists the same day Friday April 08,2016 were each sentenced to two years with hard labor for activities bringing them into contact with an armed ethnic rebel group that has been battling the central government.
A court in the central city of Mandalay sentenced Zaw Zaw Latt and Pwint Phyu Latt under a law barring associating with an unlawful organization for their contacts with the Kachin Independence Army, a guerrilla group in the country's far north. Both were already sentenced in February to two years' imprisonment for immigration law violations.
The two are members of an interfaith religious organization and said that they had been seeking to help refugees from fighting. Both are also Muslims, a minority that has faced increasing pressure and violence in recent years in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar.
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