Myanmar issues presidential pardons for almost 7000 prisoners, including

An Information Ministry statement said 6,966 prisoners, including 210 foreigners, were being freed across the country “on humanitarian grounds and in view of national reconciliation”.

A total of 6,966 prisoners were pardoned including the Chinese citizens held in Kachin state, of which 153 were given life sentences last week that prompted a diplomatic protest by an “extremely concerned” China.

Myanmar released 155 Chinese nationals on Thursday who were convicted of illegal logging in the country, Xinhua reported, citing a senior official in Yangon. The remaining pair each received a 10-year jail sentence.

According to the broadcaster, Chinese loggers are expected to return home by the end of the day.

President Thein Sein has earned global praise for releasing political prisoners since he began reforms in 2011, but Thursday’s amnesty appears to largely benefit ordinary criminals. Their arrest had angered officials in China, who had urged Myanmar to reconsider the length and severity of the sentences.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Myanmar authorities had notified Chinese officials that the 155 would be handed over to their custody on Friday.

China is Myanmar’s closest political and economic ally, but significant tensions exist between the nations. Relatives gathered outside the prison gates on Thursday morning, waiting for news of their incarcerated family members.

China is also seen as providing a safe haven for some Burmese ethnic rebel groups with which Burma’s government would like to reach ceasefire agreements. Gen. Than Tun, who served as a liaison officer between the former military government and Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who was then under house arrest. A representative for the Bi Monday Te Nay journal, a weekly publication in Myanmar, said that four of their journalists and the publisher of the journal were released after spending nearly a year in jail for articles that the government considered defamatory.

Although the major charges against the officers involved corruption, it was their ties to former intelligence chief and prime minister Khin Nyunt that led to their jailing.

The presidential pardons are in line with Mr. Thein Sein’s promise to free all prisoners of conscience, and others purged by the military regime, during his term.