BANGKOK
Myanmar should abide by its pledge to release all political prisoners by this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.
According to a statement released on the HRW website, the releases should include all people who were charged in 2013 with political offenses.
Already granting a series of amnesties to several hundred political prisoners since 2012, Myanmar's President Thein Sein had promised to form a review committee to resolve the remaining cases.
Praising the releases that have been decreed, HRW's Deputy Asian Director Phil Robertson said “Myanmar's government has taken significant steps to release political prisoners over the past two years, but the job isn’t finished.”
HRW called on Myanmar to restructure the review committee to address recent political cases.
“Foreign donors should not allow the Burmese government to get away with the game of releasing old political prisoners while arresting new ones,” Robertson said.
“They need to press for legal and policy reforms that put an end to the unlawful arrests of the government’s critics.”
Since a sectarian violence erupted in 2012 in Arakan state of western Myanmar, several hundreds of ethnic Rohingya Muslims have been sent to jail, many of whom reportedly for peaceful political activities.
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