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BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military government will release more than 6,000 prisoners and has reduced other inmates’ sentences as part of a mass amnesty on Saturday marking the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain.
It wasn’t immediately clear if those released would include any of the thousands of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule since the military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. That takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.
State-run MRTV television reported that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, granted amnesties covering 5,864 prisoners from Myanmar, as well as 180 foreigners who will be deported. Mass prisoner releases are common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar.
The foreigners to be released could include four Thai fishermen who were arrested by Myanmar’s navy in late November after patrol boats opened fire on Thai fishing vessels in waters close to their maritime border in the Andaman Sea. Thailand’s prime minister has said she expects the four to be released on Independence Day.
The terms of release warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence.
In a separate report, it said Min Aung Hlaing had commuted the life sentences of 144 prisoners to 15 years imprisonment. The report provided no details about them.
The report also said that all other prisoners will have their sentences reduced by one sixth, except those convicted under the Explosive Substances Act, the Unlawful Associations Act, the Arms Act and the Counter-terrorism Law, all laws which are often used against opponent military rule.
Myanmar did not release many details of the prisoners being freed, but many were held on charges related to protests, including Section 505(A) of Myanmar’s penal code, which makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear or spread false news.
Prisoner releases began on Saturday but can take a few days to be completed. At Insein Prison in the country’s biggest city of Yangon, which is notorious for decades for housing political detainees, relatives of prisoners gathered at the gates from early morning.
There was no sign that the prisoner release would include Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held virtually incommunicado by the military since its seizer of power.
The 79-year-old Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of a series of politically tinged prosecutions brought by the military.
Her supporters and independent analysts say the cases against her are an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power while keeping her from taking part in the military’s promised election, for which no date has yet been set.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization, 28,096 people have been arrested on political charges since the army takeover.
Of those arrested, 21,499 people were still in detention as of Friday, the AAPP reported. At least 6,106 civilians have been killed by security forces in the same period, the group says. Its tally does not include all casualties from combat.
Myanmar became a British colony in the late 19th century and regained its independence on Jan. 4, 1948.
In the capital Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s military government celebrated the anniversary with a flag-raising ceremony at City Hall.
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