Myanmar releases political prisoners as Obama arrives for 1st visit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Myanmar's government began releasing dozens of political prisoners on Monday, November 19 as Barack Obama arrived for the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the former dictatorship, Reuters said.

Sixty-six prisoners were scheduled to be freed, two-thirds of them dissidents, according to prison officials and activists.

They included prominent figures such as Myint Aye, a senior Prison Department official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A third of those released were former military intelligence personnel who fell afoul of the junta, according to the 88 Generation Students political group.

Myint Aye is arguably the most prominent dissident left in Myanmar's gulag. He was one of dozens of activists arrested on what Amnesty International says were trumped-up charges and convicted in secret courts on flimsy evidence or confessions extracted under torture.

International human rights groups accused President Obama of ignoring abuses in Myanmar and Cambodia while honoring them with his first presidential visit since his re-election.

Obama denied his visit to Myanmar was an endorsement of the country's government, but rather an acknowledgement of the progress made towards democratization and abandoning its pariah status earned during 49 years of military rule, he said during a news conference in Thailand on Sunday.