Myanmar released almost 7,000 political prisoners on Thursday, including 155 Chinese nationals, as part of a massive presidential pardon in the country.
President Thein Sein granted an amnesty to 6,966 prisoners, including more than 200 foreigners and nine former military intelligence personnel, under a mass presidential pardon, according to Agence France-Presse. The mass pardon coincides with a Buddhist religious holiday.
A statement from the information ministry said that the prisoners would be freed from various prisons across the country on humanitarian grounds and in view of national reconciliation, according to Dispatch Times.
Among the prisoners freed were 155 Chinese loggers who were sentenced to life in prison last week. The Chinese foreign ministry welcomed the release of the loggers, who are set to return to their homeland on Friday.
"We attach high importance to the measures taken by Myanmar," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said in a press conference, according to Xinhua.
Thursday's amnesty in Myanmar was one of largest in recent years. Pro-democracy activists, however, slammed the government for releasing Chinese loggers and former military officers rather than jailed activists.
"The number of political prisoners [released] is less than the number foreigners and other prisoners," U Tun Kyi, a member of the Free Political Prisoners Society, told The Myanmar Times. "The government is afraid of China but they don't care about the political prisoners. The amnesty is intended for the Chinese and the former military intelligence officers."
