The fourth of January was an eagerly awaited date for many in Myanmar. Not just for the holiday commemorating the country’s 64th year of independence from the British, but also because the government had announced that they would be releasing another batch of political prisoners – in keeping with a general trend of reform over the last few months, and a penchant for using important anniversaries for publically declared amnesties.

But for all the talk of a dawning of a new era, many activists here are left with the feeling that the government is failing to put its money where its mouth is.

There was a mass release of prisoners a day early, but of the 900 or so released, only three were political prisoners, and none were of high importance. Many of the best known jailed democracy leaders such as Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi will still be spending another 30 years behind bars. Rather than the much-trumpeted release, the government declared a conditional amnesty.

According to the state-owned TV channel MRTV, the amnesty decrees that death sentences will be commuted to life terms, some of those serving jail terms longer than 30 years will have their sentences reduced to 30 years, and those serving between 20 to 30 years will only have to do 20 years. But as many political activists were sentenced to between 30 and 65 years, the amnesty will do little in concrete terms to award them any real freedom any time soon.

Suspicious
Myat San, 45, was a student leader in 1992 when he was jailed for 18 years for being a student leader. He lived in Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound and his group the Tri Colour Students were strong supporters of The Lady, as she’s commonly known here.

Over the years, Myat San was sent from prison to prison in different isolated towns around the country – a common policy to keep political prisoners from forming close bonds with each other or the prison officials. In March 2010 he finally completed his sentence and was released. He emerged into the outside world to find that most of his Tri Colour colleagues were either in exile or still in prison.

Myat San is living for the day when all political prisoners are released. He doesn’t share the general mood of optimism about the current reforms. “I am suspicious of the government,” he says. “For me, there will be no real good news, no real positive change, till all political prisoners are out. The government is making empty promises just to get support from the west.”

The release of political prisoners is one of the few fundamental requirements most Western governments insist must be met before they are willing to initiate any talk of withdrawing sanctions. But there is a silent struggle within the ranks of the civilian government: some of its military or pro-military leaders are sincere in their desire for reform, but there are hardliners who still want to keep a tight grip on power. 

Criminals
A batch of prisoners were released in May 2010, among them the prominent comedian Zaganar, but although many western media organizations reported that 600 prisoners had been released, in fact just 200 of them were political prisoners. This could be a strategy the government is using to “trick the West and trick Aung San Suu Kyi,” as Myat San says. 

“They are releasing prisoners, but most of them are common criminals,” says Dr Ma Thida, a prominent doctor and writer. 

“They are saying they don’t want to discriminate – because it’s not fair to discriminate in freeing ordinary prisoners and political prisoners, but in this case, there should be discrimination. What was fair about giving such enormous sentences of 65 or 48 years to activists and journalists when murderers and rapists were doing less?”

And she worries about another practical problem these mass releases present. “We will see an increasing criminalization of society, a growth in crime because they’re letting out criminals just so they can say they’re releasing prisoners.”

By our correspondent in Yangon.