Myanmar frees the former British ambassador Vicky Bowman in a mass amnesty

A plane with the former British ambassador to Myanmar left Yangon on Thursday after she was freed from the military junta in a mass amnesty.

Vicky Bowman, who was sentenced to one year in prison in September, was brought to Bangkok, according to the diplomatic sources together with Sean Turnell, an Australian academic, and Toru Kubota, a Japanese filmmaker.

Ms. Bowman was part of almost 6,000 prisoners who were released from prison by Myanmar's Junta, a sign that the country's military rulers may bend the pressure of international sanctions.

htein Lin, the Burmese husband of Ms. Bowman, was also included in the amnesty, but it is unclear whether he was on the plane on Thursday.

James Cleblever, the Foreign Minister, welcomed Ms. Bowman's release, but said that everyone should be released in myanmar.

Antony flashing, the US foreign minister, welcomed the amnesty, but said there were no signs that the Junta would open.

"It is a bright spot in an otherwise incredibly dark time in which we see that things in Burma are getting worse," said Herr Blinken, who used the former name Myanmar.

"Although we are pleased to see the release of the wrongly imprisoned, I cannot tell you that this suggests something bigger to see whether there is a real change of direction of the regime."

In September, Junta Ms. Bowman and her husband sentenced them to a year in prison after accused them of immigration offenses. Her followers feared that the charges could be associated with a politically motivated strategy of Geiseldiplomacy.

Ms. Bowman was a British ambassador in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and headed the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business when she was accused of violating the law because she lived in a residence that did not match the address on her visa. Her husband was arrested because he had made the move easier.

her detention was made when the United Kingdom introduced new sanctions against the military regime on the fifth anniversary of his brutal approach to the Muslim minority of Rohingya, for which it is charged with genocide.

Myanmar's international relationships have worsened since the Junta overthrew the elected government, the civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrested and brutally acted against opponents.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an organization to monitor the rights, 16,232 people have been detained for political accusations since coup, and at least 2,465 civilians were killed by security forces during the same period, although the number is considered high.

Mr. Turnell, the Australian economist, was a consultant of Ms. Suu Kyi and one of the first foreigners who was arrested just a few days after the military was taken over.

Herr Turnell, 58, extraordinary professor of economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, was sentenced to three years in prison in September because he had violated the official confidentiality law and the country's immigration regulations.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong tweeted that she welcomed reports about his release, but would not comment on it.

Experts believe that the Junta may have been pushed from the outside by diplomatic pressure to free so many prisoners.

"The release of Turnell and Bowman is a clear indicator that the trust of the Junta collapses under international, regional and local pressure. It is not only political: even the Chinese have expressed their displeasure with the economic debris of the Junta," said Michael NG, a Hong Kong diplomat who previously managed the supervision.

But Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, tweeted that the military "does not deserve any recognition that it has released people who should never have been detained".

"These publications do not mean that the military becomes softer, it means that they want something or have received something," he said.