Myanmar on Friday announced the release of 69 political prisoners, including several prisoners of conscience.
Among those released is the prominent Karen women human rights activist Naw Ohn Hla, who was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor after peacefully protesting a copper mining project in August this year. She was given a conditional release.
Amnesty International welcomed it as a positive step, but urged the Myanmarese government to keep its promise to release everyone imprisoned for peaceful activism by the year’s end.
During a visit to the United Kingdom in July this year, President Thein Sein announced that by the end of 2013 there would be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.