BANGKOK: As United States President Barack Obama arrived in Myanmar on Monday, the government released dozens of political activists detained in years' past, activists were reported as saying. Soe Tun, a leader of the 88 Generation student movement, said some 44 political prisoners had been released on Monday. He also called for “all political prisoners” to be freed by the government. Obama was in the country, becoming the first active US President to visit Myanmar, in what many analysts told Bikyamasr.com was an attempt to “shore up” the reform process in the Southeast Asian country. Myanmar has only recently come out of years of dictatorship and authoritarian rule, and much of the world hopes that it will be able to push forward further reforms to boost the country's profile. The pardon was confirmed by a senior member of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party, who said 56 dissidents had been freed since Sunday, among them four NLD members. Estimates vary of the number of political detainees. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based campaign group, put the figure at 283 last month, before Monday's amnesty. Myanmar has come under intense pressure to free scores of dissidents believed to be languishing inside its jails, with the international community calling for their freedom in return for warming relations with the former pariah state. On Sunday Myanmar said it would review prisoner cases in line with “international standards” and open its jails to the Red Cross, as part of efforts to burnish its reform credentials.
