Myanmar to free more prisoners

Myanmar is to declare a new prisoner amnesty on Monday that will include political detainees, government officials in the military-dominated country announced. "Some prisoners will be released on Monday," an official who did not wish to be named told AFP on Sunday, without giving further details. Another official added that "some prisoners of conscience from prisons outside Yangon" would be among those freed. The regime pardoned about 200 political prisoners in a much-anticipated amnesty in October but critics said the gesture did not go far enough as most of the country's political detainees are still locked up. Monday's expected amnesty will coincide with a press conference by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to mark the first anniversary of her release from years of house arrest. Hopes of change in Myanmar have increased recently, with efforts by the new nominally civilian leadership to reach out to opponents such as Suu Kyi and a government move to defy ally China by freezing work on an unpopular dam. The release of all of the country's political prisoners, who include pro-democracy campaigners, journalists and lawyers, has long been a top demand of Western nations which imposed sanctions on Myanmar. But the exact number of political prisoners behind bars is unclear. Before last month's amnesty, rights groups and observers believed the country had roughly 2,000 political detainees. The government's national human rights commission, however, said in an open letter in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Sunday that the real number was "only some 500".