Myanmar - 69 Political Prisoners Freed - NYTimes.com Myanmar's president on Friday pardoned 69 political prisoners as part of a promise to free all such detainees by the end of the year. Most of those newly freed are members of ethnic minorities, said Ye Aung, who is on the government's political prisoner scrutiny committee. The continued detention of political prisoners in Myanmar has been a concern of the United States and other Western nations, which want to promote the country's transition to democracy after a half-century of brutal military rule. In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, welcomed the releases, saying the government had now freed more than 1,100 political prisoners since the reforms began. But human rights advocates noted that people continued to be locked up for political offenses under the nominally civilian government that took office in 2011. Mr. Ye Aung, himself a former prisoner, said after Friday's announcement that at least 60 political prisoners remained in jail.