Over 14,000 prisoners released in Burma

The government in Burma is releasing more than 14,600 prisoners under a clemency program that includes very few political prisoners. The amnesty was announced by President Thein Sein and came just days after United Nations special envoy visited Burma – known as Myanmar by the military installed government – and urged the release of all political prisoners.

“This regime is showing its true colours,” says Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “There are those who would like to see this as a reforming regime, that there are new steps towards democracy. But if we look at the facts – we look beyond the rhetoric – then this is a dictatorship that is still keeping those political prisoners in detention.

“It hasn’t created any new freedoms or liberties for Burma’s people.”

The vast majority of those released from prisons across the country on Tuesday were common criminals and very few were political prisoners, which rights groups number at least 2,200.

“Conditions inside the prisoners are very brutal,” Roberts told Vatican Radio. “Many prisoners are often kept for periods in solitary confinement, the food is very poor -- often rotten -- and prisoners have to rely on extra support from their families.”

Roberts said that political prisoners suffer extra punishment: “[They] are often routinely denied medical treatment for conditions that they’re suffering and develop in these harsh conditions with malnutrition and lack of proper care.”

Listen to Anna Roberts’ full interview with Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: