Myanmar president pardons international aid workers
Play
Yangon - Myanmar President Thein Sein pardoned three international aid workers serving prison terms for alleged involvement in sectarian violence in the western state of Rakhine, official sources said Wednesday.
The three Myanmar nationals - an employee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), one of the World Food Programme and another of a non-governmental organisation - were granted pardons Tuesday, the president's official website said.
The Rakhine State Court sentenced them Friday to two to six years in prison after the clashes in June between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities, which killed 88 people, injured 2,000 and displaced up to 90,000 people.
The president's website described the trio as "Muslim aid workers." Authorities detained about 10 international aid workers for allegedly assisting the Rohingya side in the conflict.
Three staff members of UN organisations and four local members of the Dutch branch of the non-governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders were released August 18.
"Afterwards, some of these were rearrested, so we still haven't figured out if some aid workers are still under detention," UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan said.//DPA
