DHAKA: Myanmar on Tuesday announced there were ‘no more political prisoners’ after issuing’a sweeping amnesty order aimed at fulfilling a presidential pledge to free all dissidents by the end of the year.

The country has released scores of prisoners of conscience as part of dramatic reforms, implemented since the end of outright military rule in 2011, that have ended the former pariah`s international isolation and seen most western sanctions disbanded.

Myanmar late Monday said it would pardon those imprisoned under a series of controversial legislation, including the Emergency Act used by the junta to imprison opponents as well as laws governing freedom of assembly and the right to protest.

Presidential spokesman Ye Htut said the amnesty, along with a separate pardon for five additional inmates jailed under other legislation, meant ‘there are no more political prisoners’, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1240 HRS, DEC 31, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor