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YANGON: Myanmar's opposition party Tuesday said it was sceptical the military government would release political prisoners including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite new assurances given to the UN.
The possible amnesty was announced by Myanmar's UN ambassador Than Swe to diplomats in New York after UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded the release of key political detainees ahead of national polls planned for next year.
But Myanmar's state media is yet to confirm the prisoner release and in the most recent amnesty, in February, only a handful of political detainees were among the 6,300 prisoners let out.
"We would welcome it if they released political prisoners in an amnesty but very few political prisoners have been included in previous amnesties," said National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win.
Than Swe said the release was being prepared to allow the prisoners to contest next year's elections that critics have derided as a sham intended to entrench the generals' power.
"At the request of the (UN) Secretary General, the Myanmar government is processing to grant amnesty to prisoners on humanitarian grounds and with a view to enabling them to participate in the 2010 general elections," he told the Security Council.
But the envoy also criticised "undue pressure from the outside" while claiming that his government "intends to implement all appropriate recommendations" from the UN.
Ban had earlier briefed the 15-member UN Security Council on his visit to the military-ruled nation earlier this month in which he failed to secure any concessions or meet Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The UN chief has repeatedly called for the release of political prisoners, including the NLD party leader, and cautiously welcomed Than Swe's statement.
"This is encouraging but I have to continue to follow up how they will implement all the issues raised during my visit to Myanmar," he told reporters, adding that he was not sure who would be included in the amnesty.
"I have made it quite clear that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be released and free to participate in the elections," he said.
Myanmar's English-language newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, Tuesday published an editorial defending the government’s handling of Ban's visit and denounced the focus on Aung San Suu Kyi by the NLD and "anti-government media".
It said that Ban's two meetings with military leader Senior General Than Shwe and a speech he was permitted to make in Yangon were evidence of the government's cooperation with the United Nations.
The NLD's Nyan Win, who is also representing Aung San Suu Kyi in her ongoing trial, said he thought it unlikely the opposition leader would be released.
"(Aung San Suu Kyi's) release depends on the authorities and we do not have high hopes. If she is released it will be good for all," Nyan Win said.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail on charges that she breached the terms of her house arrest when an American man swam to her lakeside home uninvited in May.
The democracy leader has been either jailed or under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years since the military government refused to recognise the NLD's victory in Myanmar's last elections, in 1990.
Nyan Win said about 400 NLD members were among the more than 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar's notorious jails.
- AFP/yb
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