Burmese President Thein Sein announced a reduction in prisoners’ sentences on Monday to coincide with the country’s 64th Independence Day. Under the order,
- death row inmates’ sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment;
- those serving more than a 30-year sentence will be commuted to 30 years;
- those serving between a 20 and 30-year sentence will be commuted to 20 years;
- and those who are serving under a 20-year sentence will be commuted to one-fourth of their sentence respectively.
Many prominent political prisoners who are serving long sentences would not be affected, such as 88-Generation student leaders Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Mya Aye, Jimmy and Nilar Thein; and ethnic leader Khun Tun Oo, who is serving a 93-year sentence.
This order cannot be called an amnesty. The limited nature ... indicates that the government has no intention to free the prisoners of conscience, activist lawyer Aung Thein told The Associated Press. Burmese officials refuse to acknowledge it has political prisoners, maintaining all prisoners have been convicted of violating existing laws. Aung Khaing Min of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) said he was disappointed that the order had not differentiated between political and criminal inmates. "It is not even an amnesty. It is very frustrating," he told Agence France Presse. He said it was "really chaotic" that the announcement was not in line with statements from some officials, who have indicated recently that more prisoners of conscience would be freed.
A government official told AFP that it was still unclear how many inmates would be freed, but about 800 men and 130 women held in Yangon were set to be released. Lawyer Phyo Min Thein, brother-in-law of jailed student leader Htay Kywe, slammed the announcement’s focus on “ordinary criminals”. “If there is another amnesty like this one, it will not help the country,” he said