Myanmar will release all political prisoners: Thein Sein

Myanmar will free all political prisoners by the end of the year, President Thein Sein said on Monday on a visit to Britain.

"We are reviewing all cases," he said after holding talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron. "I guarantee to you that by the end of this year, there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar."

The former general, who heads a military-backed civilian government which came to power in 2011 after decades of army rule, has embarked on extensive political reforms.

He told an audience at Chatham House think tank that thousands of political prisoners had been freed since he came to power.

A special committee, in part made up of former prisoners, was "working diligently to ensure that no one remains in prison due to his or her political beliefs or actions," he said.

His comments came after Cameron urged him to take "greater action" to promote human rights and said he was "particularly concerned" about the Rohingya Muslims.

Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya communities broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine State last year, leaving 167 people, mostly Muslims, dead and about 140,000 displaced.

Dozens were killed this year in anti-Muslim riots in the centre and north of the country.

"We are particularly concerned about what has happened in Rakhine province and the Rohingya Muslims," Cameron said.

While Britain welcomes the reforms, it also looks forward to free, fair and open elections in 2015, Cameron added as he welcomed Thein Sein to Downing Street.

Britain seeks to promote trade and human rights

Britain wants to develop trade and investment between the two countries, Cameron said but added that London was "also very keen to see greater action on promoting human rights and dealing with regional conflicts." The violence in Rakhine province had "rightly concerned the world," Thein Sein said.

"I promise you that we will take a zero-tolerance approach to any renewed violence and against those who fuel ethnic hatreds." He described the difficulties of ending dozens of conflicts which have plagued the country since independence from Britain in 1948, but said his government was on the verge of establishing a peace agreement with the last remaining major armed group.

"Very possibly, over the coming weeks, we will have a nationwide ceasefire and the guns will go silent everywhere in Myanmar for the very first time in over 60 years," he said.

"We are aiming for nothing less than a transition from half a century of military rule and authoritarianism to democracy," he said.

Thein Sein's Union Solidarity and Development Party will face off against effective opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy in the 2015 polls.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate who spent 15 years under house arrest during the military junta's rule, recently affirmed her desire to become president.

Thein Sein's first visit to Britain

Thein Sein's visit was the first to Britain by a president from Myanmar. During his two-day trip, he was also to meet Foreign Secretary William Hague and the ministers responsible for development, trade and investment.

A small group of human rights campaigners held a demonstration outside Parliament, protesting Britain's decision to invite Thein Sein and warning that Myanmar could face a genocide similar to that in Rwanda in 1994.

"Twenty years after Rwanda, the warning signs of another large-scale slaughter are right in front of us," said Ricken Patel, executive director at the advocacy group Avaaz.

The rights group Burma Campaign UK said Thein Sein's past meant he was not the right person to lead reform in the country and accused Britain of prioritising trade over human rights.

"The British government hails Thein Sein as a reformer, but he has a lot of blood on his hands," said Mark Farmaner, the group's director.

The president was a soldier in the Myanmar army for 40 years and was also a member of the former military dictatorship's ruling council.

"Thein Sein's past helps explain why so many human rights abuses are still going on today and the limited nature of the reforms so far," Farmaner said.

Human Rights Watch also argued that Thein Sein had failed to fulfil pledges to improve the human rights situation in his country.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/07/16/myanmar-will-release-all-political-prisoners-thein-sein/