A newly-released inmate is reunited with family members after walking out of Myanmar’s Insein prison.
AFP/Yangon
Myanmar yesterday released 155 Chinese nationals, who were last week jailed for illegal logging, as a “goodwill” gesture following intense lobbying from Beijing in a mass amnesty that also freed several political prisoners.
The announcement comes after the stiff logging sentences sharply raised tensions between the once closely-bonded neighbours whose ties have cooled since Myanmar began emerging from decades of military rule in 2011.
Their release forms part of a mass prisoner amnesty announced yesterday with authorities ordering the nationwide release of 6,966 detainees, including 210 foreigners, according to a statement on the Ministry of Information website.
It said the move hoped to promote “goodwill and is aimed at keeping a friendly relationship between countries”.
Authorities have freed all of the 155 Chinese nationals handed jail sentences for illegal logging in northern Myanmar near the China border, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.
“Myanmar informed China this morning that they will transfer the above-mentioned persons tomorrow,” the statement said, adding that there had been “intense communication” between the two nations over the loggers.
In Yangon crowds of anxious relatives thronged the gates of the city’s notorious Insein prison where there were tearful reunions with released loved ones.
Five imprisoned journalists were also among 13 political prisoners set free, according to a tally by the activist group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors dissidents held in Myanmar’s jails.
The former junta-run nation kept some 2,000 political prisoners locked up in brutal conditions until the current quasi-civilian government began quashing their sentences as part of sporadic amnesties.
The Chinese loggers were arrested in January during a crackdown on illegal forestry activities in war-torn northern Kachin state, where both military and rebel forces are accused of profiting from the exploitation of the area’s rich natural resources by companies from China.
A court official in Kachin earlier this month said 153 loggers were handed life sentences — usually equivalent to 20 years — while two males aged under 18 were jailed for 10 years.
The decision to jail the loggers sparked outraged editorials in Chinese state media, but their release barely a week later proved controversial on Myanmar websites yesterday.
One report of the release on the website of the local Kumudra news journal was met with hundreds of angry comments accusing the government of being “stupid” and “scared of the Chinese” among the more printable insults.
