Rights group: Free Myanmar prisoners before polls

(September 18, 2009) A leading U.S.-based human rights group has launched a campaign for Myanmar's military government to release more than 2,200 political prisoners before elections promised for next year. Human Rights Watch said the junta has more than doubled the number of political prisoners in the past two years, with more than 100 jailed in recent months. It called on the government to «immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners» if the elections are to have any credibility. The junta has repeatedly denied it holds political prisoners, saying all inmates have been found guilty of criminal offences. A government spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the report. Human Rights Watch said those imprisoned in the past two years, some with sentences several decades long, include people involved in peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007 and in assisting the victims of a devastating cyclone in 2008. It said the country has 43 known prisons holding political activists and more than 50 labor camps where prisoners are forced to perform hard labor. The release of political prisoners is also a demand of Myanmar's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. It has not yet decided to take part in the elections, and says the release of prisoners, including Suu Kyi _ who is under house arrest _ is a condition for taking part.