US says Myanmar's amnesty disappointing

WASHINGTON - The US State Department said on Tuesday that Myanmar's recent amnesty to prisoners was disappointing, urging the Myanmar government to release all political prisoners.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States remained concerned about "the more than a thousand political prisoners that remain in custody," adding that "a full political prisoner release" is what the international community wants to see.

When asked if the amnesty fell short of Washington's expectation, Nuland said: "It does, yes."

She reiterated that the United States wanted to see the release of all political prisoners "as soon as possible," stressing that it was one of the "vital steps" for the normalization of US- Myanmar relations.

"So from that perspective it's not a step of the magnitude that we would be interested in matching," Nuland said.

Myanmar's new government announced amnesty to more prisoners Monday on the eve of the 64th anniversary of Independence Day which falls on Wednesday, according to an order of the Presidential Office.

The latest amnesty represents the third granted to prisoners in the country since the new elected government assumed office on March 30, 2011.

The criminals pardoned by the government will get death penalty commuted to life sentence, while those sentenced to over 30 years (excluding life sentence) will get reduction to 30 years in prison, jail terms of between 20 and 30 years will be cut to 20 years and that below 20 years be reduced by a quarter.