In an article for Mizzima News from Myanmar, Burma Campaign UK’s Director Mark Farmaner said history was made this Thingyan New Year, but it largely went unnoticed. For the first time in decades a prisoner amnesty was announced, but none of those released were political prisoners. Almost 200 political prisoners were left in jail, some of them convicted, some not even convicted, still awaiting trial. Keeping political prisoners in jail puts the NLD government in the same league as governments in countries like Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.