Myanmar’s leader has set up a committee to review political prisoner cases “to grant them liberty”, state media said Thursday, in a rare direct acknowledgement of dissidents in the nation’s jails.
The regime, which long denied their existence, has freed hundreds of political detainees since President Thein Sein took power in March 2011, and announced a review of all “politically concerned” cases in November last year.
The latest statement referred specifically to “political prisoners” and pledged to define who is a “prisoner of conscience” among those jailed - many for several years or more - and work towards their release.
The committee members are yet to be picked, but will be made up of government representatives as well as civil society groups and other political party members, the statement in the English-language New Light of Myanmar said.
Presidential spokesman Ye Htut said the issue of prisoner releases was key towards achieving “national reconciliation”.
But first, “it is important to decide who will be designated as political prisoners”, he said.
