Is there any chance that Burma’s military government will soon release Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners?
The purpose of this campaign is to secure the release of all 2,100 political prisoners. While the UN and foreign governments such as the US, Australia, Canada, EU Member states, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and India, have repeatedly called on Burma’s rulers to free all political prisoners, so far that has been met with resistance, and only a handful of political prisoners have been released. In the past, amnesties of prisoners have been a public relations stunt designed to curry favor with the international community. In reality, very few political prisoners are ever released during state amnesties. According to the SPDC’s publicly released figures, a total of 38,618 prisoners have been released in five separate amnesties since November 2004, including only 461 political prisoners, or 1.2 percent: • In February 2009, 6,313 prisoners were released. 31 of them were political prisoners. • In September 2008, 9,002 prisoners were released, 9 of them political prisoners, including the famous
