Myanmar’s junta plans to release 3,015 prisoners, according to a statement carried on the pro-military channel Myanmar Radio and Television.
Other junta statements Monday said 98 foreigners, including five Sri Lankans being held in Yangon’s Insein prison, were among those set to be released as part of the New Year"s amnesty.
Relatives of other prisoners waited outside Insein on Monday morning as yellow buses carried freed prisoners out of the notorious prison.
It was not immediately clear how many political prisoners were among those granted amnesty.
Among those detained in the more than two years since the coup are Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League for Democracy, who is serving a total of 33 years in prison. The NLD -- dissolved by the junta last month -- won a landslide victory in the 2020 general election and many senior members were arrested on trumped-up charges in the days and months following the coup.
Others being held for ‘political’ crimes include civil disobedience movement teachers, students, doctors and nurses, and also members and supporters of People’s Defense Forces.
The junta has arrested more than 21,300 political prisoners since seizing power in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to the Thailand-based monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Of that number, it says 17,460 are still being held in prisons across the country.
Junta State Secretary Lt. Gen. Aung Lin Dwe said the amnesty was intended to “bring joy for the people and address humanitarian concerns.” It is likely to do neither.
Last week, ASEAN joined humanitarian groups in condemning the junta for staging probably its most brutal massacre in the more than two years since the coup.
At least 165 people were killed, many women and children among them, when junta jets bombed the opening ceremony of a village administrative building in Sagaing region, while helicopter gunships cut down those trying to flee.
Anti-junta People’s Defense Forces have warned people not to celebrate the Thingyan water festival and New Year, bombing junta-building Thingyan pavilions across the country, killing eight people in Sagaing region and four in Shan state.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
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