YANGON — Myanmar has removed about 2,000 exiles from an immigration blacklist drawn up by the former junta to allow them to return home as part of political reforms, the authorities said Tuesday. “The people taken off the blacklist are civil servants who fled Myanmar a long time ago," an Information Ministry official said. “More than 6,000 former civil servants from government ministries were blacklisted. Some 2,000 were taken off today," he said. “They can come back to the country freely. The authorities will decide later whether to remove the others." Several million people fled the country to escape the corrupted economy and political repression under army rule which ended last year, leaving a shortage of professionals to help manage economic and political change. Many government workers and intellectuals left after a student-led uprising in 1988 that was brutally crushed by the military. Journalists who fled to work overseas were also blacklisted. Among those famously blacklisted was former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh, who played pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in “The Lady," which was released last year. Yeoh had met Suu Kyi on an initial visit but was deported upon arrival for her second visit in June 2011. Author Benedict Rogers, who wrote a 2010 biography on former junta chief Than Shwe has been blacklisted and un-blacklisted a few times. “This is an encouraging and positive step," said Rogers. “I hope all of the other people on the list will be removed." — Agencies
