Myanmar frees about 300 dissidents, many still in jail

YANGON, (Reuters) – Myanmar freed at least 300  political prisoners including several prominent dissidents today, leaving an estimated 1,800 behind bars, as one of the  world’s most reclusive states begins to open up after half a  century of iron-fisted rule.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to Reuters  before a general amnesty for 6,359 prisoners including political  detainees, said she was encouraged by “promising signals” of  reform but that it was too early to announce steps Washington  might take in response.
The United States, Europe and Australia have said freeing  Myanmar’s political prisoners is essential to even considering  lifting sanctions that have crippled the pariah state and, over  years, driven it closer to China.
A senior prison official told Reuters about 300 dissidents  were freed today.
“We hope many more will be released,” said Nobel Peace Prize  laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, herself freed from 15 years of house  arrest last year. “I’m really thankful for the release of  political prisoners,” she told supporters.
After weeks of rare overtures, including a loosening of some  media controls and more dialogue with Suu Kyi, the number was  less than many had expected, raising questions over how soon and  how fast the former British colony is willing to open up, under  pressure for change on multiple fronts, including popular  resentment at China’s new influence.
“It is disappointing,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty  International’s Myanmar researcher based in Bangkok. “We had  reason to expect, given the rather fast and qualitative steps  that have taken place over the past several months, that today’s  release would be more substantial numerically.”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has released dissidents only  to detain them again, but with more freed than in the past,  there was reason to believe this time would be different.
The army nominally handed over power in March to civilians  after the first elections in two decades in November, a process  mocked at the time as a scripted sham to seal authoritarian rule  behind a democratic facade.
Since then, President Thein Sein, a retired general but the  first civilian head of state in half a century, has begun a  number of reforms, including calls to win over restive ethnic  minorities, some tolerance of criticism and more diplomacy.