Myanmar’s military government yesterday granted amnesty to more than 3,000 prisoners to mark the traditional lunar new year holiday, but it was not immediately clear if those released included the thousands of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule.
State-run MRTV television reported that the Burmese State Administration Council, the ruling body created by the military after it seized power in 2021, had pardoned 3,113 prisoners, including 98 foreigners who are to be deported.
Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays.
Photo: AFP
The number and names of people to be freed from the country’s largest penitentiary was not yet known, said an official from Yangon’s Insein Prison, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information,
The releases began yesterday, but can sometimes take a few days to be completed.
About 17,460 political detainees, including former Burmese state councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Wednesday, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts.
Myanmar has been under military rule since Feb. 1, 2021, when its army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. The takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.
Urban guerrillas are active in major cities, and the loosely organized People’s Defense Forces, along with their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla groups, regularly strike military columns and outposts.
Civilians have borne the brunt of brutal military offensives in the countryside, including the use of artillery and airstrikes, which have displaced more than 1 million people, causing a humanitarian crisis.
At least 3,240 civilians have been killed by the security forces since the military takeover, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said.
Its tally does not include all casualties from combat.
It is not known how many of the political prisoners would be among those released, if any, but any such action would be taken to burnish the image of the military government, said Tun Kyi, a senior member of the Former Political Prisoners Society.
He said his group viewed such releases as trying to score political points, ease international pressure and seek to demonstrate the military’s legitimacy.
This year’s celebrations of Thingyan, the new year’s holiday, drew smaller crowds than had gathered before the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 takeover. In big cities, the merrymaking involving the playful splashing of water took place at designated high-security pavilions. Celebrations in most rural areas were muted, with many people heeding the call of opponents of military rule not to take part in the military-planned activities.
During the holiday, which officially extends for nine days, but has state-sponsored gatherings for just four, the violent struggle between the army and pro-democracy forces continued. There were armed clashes in the countryside and small bombings of the official military-sponsored pavilions in several towns and cities.
The number of casualties was unclear.
The country’s military leader, Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, did not touch on the country’s extended political crisis in a new year’s speech broadcast yesterday.
He said that the economy, which faced difficulties in 2021, had rebounded last year from contraction to nearly 3 percent growth.
“I fully believe that if the people work hard to export more products, this year the economic growth will be better than previous years,” he said.
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