Mencari Kebenaran . . .: Myanmar Releases Dissidents, Keeps Many locked Up

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Myanmar Releases Dissidents, Keeps Many locked Up

October 12, 2011 - Yangon, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar membebaskan seorang pengkritik lantang dan menderhaka etnik utama kerana ia mula melepaskan 6300 banduan Rabu dalam usaha meliberalisasikan terkini, tetapi memelihara beberapa tahanan politik di belakang bar, menjejaskan harapan untuk pengampunan yang lebih luas.

Ia tidak jelas berapa ramai negara ini dianggarkan 2,000 tahanan politik termasuk dalam pengampunan - satu anggaran berkata hanya 155 daripada mereka telah dibebaskan. Tetapi yang dikeluarkan termasuk yang bermasalah Shan komander tentera Hso Kemudian dan pelawak Zarganar, yang telah dipenjarakan selepas mengkritik tindak balas kerajaan untuk Taufan Nargis pada tahun 2008.

"Saya akan gembira dan saya akan mengucapkan terima kasih kepada kerajaan hanya apabila semua kawan-kawan saya dibebaskan," Zarganar memberitahu The Associated Press selepas dibebaskan di Negeri Kachin utara. Mereka yang ditahan pemimpin-pemimpin pelajar yang kembali dimasukkan dari Myanmar 1988 gagal kebangkitan demokrasi dan seorang penulis blog yang menjalani hukuman penjara 12 tahun.

Kerajaan Barat, Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu dan pembangkang Myanmar telah ditunggu-tunggu pengampunan umum politik sebagai tanda liberalisasi oleh kerajaan yang dipilih selepas dekad pemerintahan tentera yang keras. Kegagalan membuat susulan kepada orang-orang harapan boleh menjejaskan usaha negara untuk kilap rekod hak asasi manusia dan memenangi mengangkat sekatan ekonomi dan politik Barat.

Saudara-mara banduan mengadakan pertemuan semula emosi dengan orang yang disayangi di luar penjara di seluruh negara sehari selepas presiden baru awam di negara ini mengisytiharkan pengampunan bagi 6359 tahanan - banyak dari mereka penjenayah biasa - atas dasar kemanusiaan, tetapi tanpa mendedahkan apa-apa nama.

"Kebebasan setiap individu yang tidak ternilai, tetapi saya mahu semua tahanan politik akan dibebaskan," kata yang paling menonjol kempen pro-demokrasi Myanmar, Hadiah Nobel Keamanan Nobel Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi Liga Kebangsaan untuk Demokrasi mengesahkan pembebasan 155 tahanan politik, termasuk ahli-ahli parti itu, jurucakap Nyan Win berkata. Tetapi pembangkang lain telah dibebaskan tanpa sesiapa dihubungi lagi.

Presiden Thein Sein, seorang pegawai tentera bersara kanan yang mengambil alih jawatan pada bulan Mac, telah melancarkan satu siri reformasi ekonomi dan lega had ke atas kebebasan bersuara oleh penapisan santai dan laman-laman web nyahhalang diharamkan.

Beliau juga telah memulakan dialog dengan Suu Kyi, membuat panggilan untuk damai dengan kumpulan pemberontak etnik minoriti dan digantung projek empangan China yang disokong oleh kuasa hidro kontroversi selepas bantahan awam. "Kadar perubahan adalah lebih cepat daripada yang saya akan mempunyai dijangka," kata Monique Skidmore, seorang pakar Myanmar di University of Canberra. "Thein Sein mesti berasa cukup selamat."

Tetapi dia menambah bahawa dia tahu pembebasan tahanan politik mesti komprehensif, "jika tidak tidak akan ada akhir untuk sekatan." Kumpulan hak asasi manusia Amnesty International menggesa Rabu melepaskan "Langkah pertama minimum," dan berkata pihak berkuasa "dengan serta-merta dan tanpa syarat mesti melepaskan semua banduan yang tinggal suara hati."

Antara orang-orang yang dikeluarkan Hso Kemudian, komander Tentera Shan, tetapi lain pemimpin Shan terkemuka, Hkun Htun Oo, tidak dibebaskan, menurut pegawai kerajaan yang bercakap mengenai dikenali kerana dia tidak diberi kuasa untuk bercakap kepada pemberita.

Hso Kemudian menjalani hukuman penjara 106 tahun untuk pengkhianatan kpd negara selepas dia ditangkap pada tahun 2005. Zarganar aktivis telah menjalani hukuman penjara 35 tahun di penjara Myitkyina. Zarganar ditahan selepas memberi wawancara kepada media asing yang mengkritik bekas pemerintah tentera kerana lambat untuk bertindak balas terhadap Taufan Nargis, yang mengorbankan hampir 140,000 orang mati atau hilang. Beliau didapati bersalah menyebabkan penggera awam dan secara haram memberi maklumat kepada media.

"Saya tidak bahagia sama sekali, tidak ada 14 saya yang dipanggil banduan rakan-rakan politik dari penjara Myitkyina di antara mereka yang dibebaskan hari ini," katanya kepada AP melalui telefon kerana dia menunggu untuk menaiki pesawat ke Yangon. Kakak terkenal bekas pemimpin pelajar Min Ko Naing berkata dia diberitahu dia tidak ada dalam senarai mereka yang dibebaskan. "Kami digunakan untuk naik dan turun ini," Kyi Kyi Nyunt berkata.

Min Ko Naing telah menjalani hukuman penjara 65 tahun di penjara di Negeri Shan di timur laut Myanmar sejak tahun 2008 bagi pementasan jalan bantahan terhadap kenaikan harga bahan api secara besar-besaran. Beliau ditangkap pada Ogos 2007 bersama-sama dengan pelajar lain bekas yang terkenal yang sebelum ini dipenjarakan selepas berada di barisan hadapan kebangkitan pro-demokrasi yang gagal pada tahun 1988.

Aktivis dan saudara-mara berkata, ia kelihatan bahawa kebanyakan atau semua dipenjarakan "Generasi 88" komrad kekal di belakang bar. Ashin Gambira, seorang rahib muda berkarisma yang merupakan antara pemimpin-pemimpin kebangkitan September 2007 anti-kerajaan, tidak ada dalam senarai mereka yang dibebaskan, kata Nai Nai, yang mengendalikan hal ehwal banduan politik parti Suu Kyi.

Demonstrasi menarik seramai 100,000 orang pada ketinggian mereka sebelum kejam ditindas. Amerika Syarikat, yang telah mencari jalan untuk kembali terlibat dengan Myanmar, telah berkata ia mahu semua tahanan politik dibebaskan. Negeri Jabatan jurucakap Victoria Nuland berkata pada Selasa bahawa Amerika Syarikat akan mengekalkan mata rapat yang dilepaskan di bawah pengampunan.

Washington telah lama diasingkan Myanmar dengan sekatan politik dan ekonomi kerana kegagalan bekas junta untuk menyerahkan kuasa kepada kerajaan yang dipilih secara demokrasi dan miskin rekod hak asasi manusia. Di Philippine President Filipina Benigno Aquino III menggesa lebih banyak pembaharuan demokratik.

"Nampaknya ada beberapa pembukaan ruang demokrasi dalam Myanmar," katanya pada sidang akhbar. "Kami ingin lebih dan lebih daripada itu."

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Myanmar Releases Dissidents, Keeps Many locked Up

October 12, 2011 - YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar freed an outspoken critic and a major ethnic rebel as it began releasing 6,300 convicts Wednesday in its latest liberalizing move, but kept some political detainees behind bars, dampening hopes for a broader amnesty.

It was not clear how many of the country's estimated 2,000 political detainees were included in the amnesty - one estimate said only 155 of them were freed. But the released included ailing Shan Army commander Hso Hten and comedian Zarganar, who was imprisoned after criticizing the government's response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

"I will be happy and I will thank the government only when all of my friends are freed," Zarganar told The Associated Press after his release in northernmost Kachin State. Those held back included student leaders from Myanmar's failed 1988 democracy uprising and a blogger serving a 12-year prison sentence.

Western governments, the U.N. and Myanmar's opposition have eagerly awaited a broad political amnesty as a gesture of liberalization by the elected government after decades of harsh military rule. A failure to follow through on those hopes could hamper the country's efforts to burnish its human rights record and win a lifting of Western economic and political sanctions.

Relatives of convicts held emotional reunions with loved ones outside prisons around the country a day after the country's new civilian president declared an amnesty for 6,359 inmates - many of them ordinary criminals - on humanitarian grounds, but without disclosing any names.

"The freedom of each individual is invaluable, but I wish that all political prisoners would be released," said Myanmar's most prominent pro-democracy campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy confirmed the release of 155 political detainees, including members of her party, spokesman Nyan Win said. But other dissidents could have been freed without having contacted anyone yet.

President Thein Sein, a retired senior army officer who took office in March, has launched a series of economic reforms and eased limits on freedom of speech by relaxing censorship and unblocking banned websites.

He also has started a dialogue with Suu Kyi, made calls for peace with ethnic minority rebel groups and suspended a controversial China-backed hydropower dam project after a public outcry. "The pace of change is much faster than I would have expected," said Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at the University of Canberra. "Thein Sein must be feeling pretty secure."

But she added that he knows the release of political prisoners must be comprehensive, "otherwise there will be no end to sanctions." The human rights group Amnesty International called Wednesday's releases a "minimum first step," and said the authorities "must immediately and unconditionally release all remaining prisoners of conscience."

Among those released were Hso Hten, the Shan Army commander, but another prominent Shan leader, Hkun Htun Oo, was not freed, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Hso Hten was serving a 106-year prison sentence for high treason following his arrest in 2005. The activist Zarganar had been serving a 35-year sentence in Myitkyina prison. Zarganar was detained after giving interviews to foreign media criticizing the former military rulers for being slow to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which left nearly 140,000 people dead or missing. He was convicted of causing public alarm and illegally giving information to the media.

"I am not happy at all, as none of my 14 so-called political prisoner friends from Myitkyina prison are among those freed today," he told the AP by phone as he waited to board a plane to Yangon. The sister of famous former student leader Min Ko Naing said she was told he was not on the list of those to be freed. "We are used to these ups and downs," Kyi Kyi Nyunt said.

Min Ko Naing has been serving a 65-year sentence at a prison in Shan State in northeastern Myanmar since 2008 for staging a street protest against a massive fuel price hike. He was arrested in August 2007 along with other well-known former students who were previously jailed after being at the forefront of the failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

Activists and relatives said it appeared that most or all of his imprisoned "88 Generation" comrades remained behind bars. Ashin Gambira, a young charismatic monk who was among the leaders of a September 2007 anti-government uprising, was not on the list of those freed, said Nai Nai, who handles political prisoner affairs for Suu Kyi's party.

The demonstrations attracted as many as 100,000 people at their height before being brutally suppressed. The United States, which has been seeking ways to re-engage with Myanmar, has said it wants all political detainees released. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the U.S. would be keeping a close eye on who is released under the amnesty.

Washington has long isolated Myanmar with political and economic sanctions because of the former junta's failure to hand power to a democratically elected government and its poor human rights record. In Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III urged more democratic reforms.

"There seems to be some opening of the democratic space within Myanmar," he told a news conference. "We would like more and more of that."

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