Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed the prisoner amnesty and said that ethnic harmony was key to a strong democracy. Photograph: Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images
Authorities in Burma are set to release hundreds of prisoners in a new amnesty, in the latest step towards wholesale reform in the secretive south-east Asian state.
An announcement on Thursday has raised hopes that many of the political prisoners currently held in Burmese jails will be among the 600-odd detainees set to be freed.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, repeatedly raised the issue of the political prisoners, who could number as many as 1,700, during a visit to Burma last week, as did Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, during her visit in December.
Burmese state radio and television said the prisoners would be released so they can "participate in the task of nation-building".
The words used appeared to indicate that many would be political prisoners, observers said. A recent clemency order was widely criticised internationally for releasing only 13 minor political activists.
On Thursday, Burmese authorities also signed a ceasefire agreement with ethnic rebels in the east of the country, taking a major step toward ending one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.
Burma has been ruled directly or indirectly by the military since 1962,but a nominally civilian government was appointed last year, pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest and censorship eased.
The three conditions laid out by western governments for sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US on Burma to be lifted are free elections, the release of political prisoners and peace with the dozens of ethnic groups which have been fighting authorities intermittently for decades.
A spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said "the government is releasing the prisoners apparently because the recent clemency order was strongly criticised by us and the international community."
"We have to wait and see how many political prisoners will be released tomorrow," Ohn Kyaing, the spokesman, said. Many of those being held are members of the NLD. However, the peace agreement with the rebels is also seen as crucial.
Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the NLD, said last week that "unless there is ethnic harmony, it will be very difficult ... to build up a strong democracy." Agencies in Rangoon have reported that the government's peace committee met on Thursday with leaders of the Karen ethnic group in the Karen state capital, Pa-an.
A government official at the talks told reporters "a ceasefire agreement has been signed" between the authorities and the Karen National Union, a rebel group.
Karen rebels have been fighting for autonomy for 63 years and were the only major ethnic community in Burma that had not concluded any kind of peace agreement with the government.
Violence between ethnic groups living along the borders and Burmese central government forces has displaced millions of people and caused huge suffering.
Military offensives have been accompanied by systematic rape, torture and the use of forced labour, human rights groups say. Millions have been forced into exile, many fleeing to neighbouring Thailand.
An agreement with groups representing the Kachin ethnic minority in the north-east broke down last summer.
Military operations – in contradiction of an order given by President Thein Sein last month – appear to be continuing. Aid workers in Burma said on Thursday the situation was deteriorating, with more than 50,000 Kachin people forced from their homes over the past six months.
The Karen long fought successfully against Burmese authorities from the jungle-covered hills near the border with Thailand before a lack of unity weakened the movement.
Karen diaspora groups cautiously welcomed Thursday's agreement but warned that it remained unsafe for Karen exiles to return to Burma.
"We have seen how human rights abuses have continued in other areas of Burma where there are ceasefires, and how the dictatorship used the ceasefires to extend its control … A ceasefire alone tackles the symptoms, not the causes. There must also be political dialogue for a permanent political solution," a statement from Karen Communities Worldwide said.
There have been several rounds of ceasefire discussions between the Karen and the government, most recently around 2005, but none resulted in an agreement.
One Burma-based analyst described the agreement as "ground-breaking", but warned that genuine economic development was now important to make sure any peace was durable.
"The previous ceasefires in 1990s become an opportunity for [some leaders] to enrich themselves and intensified the extraction of natural resources," the analyst said. One example was extensive logging by Chinese companies in Kachin areas. Opium poppy cultivation and drug manufacture also boomed.
An announcement on Thursday has raised hopes that many of the political prisoners currently held in Burmese jails will be among the 600-odd detainees set to be freed.
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, repeatedly raised the issue of the political prisoners, who could number as many as 1,700, during a visit to Burma last week, as did Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, during her visit in December.
Burmese state radio and television said the prisoners would be released so they can "participate in the task of nation-building".
The words used appeared to indicate that many would be political prisoners, observers said. A recent clemency order was widely criticised internationally for releasing only 13 minor political activists.
On Thursday, Burmese authorities also signed a ceasefire agreement with ethnic rebels in the east of the country, taking a major step toward ending one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.
Burma has been ruled directly or indirectly by the military since 1962,but a nominally civilian government was appointed last year, pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest and censorship eased.
The three conditions laid out by western governments for sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US on Burma to be lifted are free elections, the release of political prisoners and peace with the dozens of ethnic groups which have been fighting authorities intermittently for decades.
A spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said "the government is releasing the prisoners apparently because the recent clemency order was strongly criticised by us and the international community."
"We have to wait and see how many political prisoners will be released tomorrow," Ohn Kyaing, the spokesman, said. Many of those being held are members of the NLD. However, the peace agreement with the rebels is also seen as crucial.
Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the NLD, said last week that "unless there is ethnic harmony, it will be very difficult ... to build up a strong democracy." Agencies in Rangoon have reported that the government's peace committee met on Thursday with leaders of the Karen ethnic group in the Karen state capital, Pa-an.
A government official at the talks told reporters "a ceasefire agreement has been signed" between the authorities and the Karen National Union, a rebel group.
Karen rebels have been fighting for autonomy for 63 years and were the only major ethnic community in Burma that had not concluded any kind of peace agreement with the government.
Violence between ethnic groups living along the borders and Burmese central government forces has displaced millions of people and caused huge suffering.
Military offensives have been accompanied by systematic rape, torture and the use of forced labour, human rights groups say. Millions have been forced into exile, many fleeing to neighbouring Thailand.
An agreement with groups representing the Kachin ethnic minority in the north-east broke down last summer.
Military operations – in contradiction of an order given by President Thein Sein last month – appear to be continuing. Aid workers in Burma said on Thursday the situation was deteriorating, with more than 50,000 Kachin people forced from their homes over the past six months.
The Karen long fought successfully against Burmese authorities from the jungle-covered hills near the border with Thailand before a lack of unity weakened the movement.
Karen diaspora groups cautiously welcomed Thursday's agreement but warned that it remained unsafe for Karen exiles to return to Burma.
"We have seen how human rights abuses have continued in other areas of Burma where there are ceasefires, and how the dictatorship used the ceasefires to extend its control … A ceasefire alone tackles the symptoms, not the causes. There must also be political dialogue for a permanent political solution," a statement from Karen Communities Worldwide said.
There have been several rounds of ceasefire discussions between the Karen and the government, most recently around 2005, but none resulted in an agreement.
One Burma-based analyst described the agreement as "ground-breaking", but warned that genuine economic development was now important to make sure any peace was durable.
"The previous ceasefires in 1990s become an opportunity for [some leaders] to enrich themselves and intensified the extraction of natural resources," the analyst said. One example was extensive logging by Chinese companies in Kachin areas. Opium poppy cultivation and drug manufacture also boomed.
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