Rewarding reform

At a summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) formally granted Myanmar the chair for 2014. "This will create further motivation for Myanmar to continue their reforms," said Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

The move came shortly after US President Obama in Australia had criticized the fact that "violations of human rights persist" in the isolated state.

It also comes before the country's next by-election for which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party is expected to register on Friday. The party was barred from taking power after its landslide victory in 1990, and Suu Kyi went on to spend a good part of the next two decades under house arrest.

Speaking at a press conference a year after her release on 14 November, she was optimistic: "Looking back at the past year, I think I can say that it has been eventful, energizing and to a certain extent encouraging." She has met Myanmar's labor minister four times this year and even had a meeting with President Thein Sein, the first civilian president since 1962.

Some limited improvements

"There's no doubt that some limited, albeit real and qualitative, human rights improvements have taken place over the past year," agrees Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar expert. "The thing to keep in mind is that those improvements have been strictly confined to the political centers and the political spheres," he told Deutsche Welle.

Although hundreds of political prisoners have been released in two general amnesties issued in May and October, large numbers still remain in jail. Rights groups estimate the number at around 2,000, while the NLD places the current figure at around 600.

Announcements by the government that it would soon grant a further amnesty led observers to believe more political prisoners would be released earlier this week. As this failed to materialize, however, five monks launched a protest in Mandalay, the country's second largest city, to demand the unconditional release of all political prisoners, a stop to the civil war and national reconciliation. It is the first time monks have protested so openly since the so-called Saffron Revolution of 2007, in which over 30 people died and hundreds were arrested.

'Bargaining chips'

Aung Khaing Min, Chief of Office of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), does not believe steps taken by the government to improve human rights are genuine. "The government is raging war against ethnic groups, there is no guarantee for political freedom or basic civil and political rights and political prisoners are not unconditionally released."

He thinks the political prisoners who were released in May and October were nothing more than "bargaining chips. The reality is the changes are designed just for the lifting of sanctions, and (because the government is) eyeing the chairmanship of ASEAN for 2014."

Min is himself a former political prisoner who was arrested in pro-democracy demonstrations in Yangon in 1996. He was released eight years later. His organization works to help former political prisoners, whose accounts of conditions in prisons confirm that the treatment of prisoners has not improved at all.

"Right now, even under the civilian government, political prisoners are still suffering from torture, malnutrition and maltreatment," he said. "Political prisoners are transferred to remote prisons far away from their families by the regime, it is by all standards a form of torture, not only to the prisoners but also to their families."

More armed ethnic conflict

Wenzel Michalski, Germany Director of Human Rights Watch, told Deutsche Welle that in certain states - including Kachin, Kayan and Mon - conditions had actually worsened since last year's elections and there was more armed conflict than before. He said there were "extrajudicial executions, disappearances and torture" and that prisoners were "used as soldiers, abused and poorly fed."

"Some are even used as human mine-detection dogs," he added. "If they lose a leg or something, they receive no medical treatment. We even have reports that they are shot and disposed of on the side of the street."

He and other rights groups have called on the international community to be skeptical about the reforms. "It is not enough to have plans on paper, they must also be implemented," Michalski said.

Author: Sarah Berning
Editor: Anne Thomas