Myanmar’s military government will release about 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.
There was no sign that the prisoner release would include Aung San Suu Kyi, 79, who has been held virtually incommunicado by the military since it seized power from her elected government in 2021. She is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of a series of politically tinged prosecutions brought by the military.
Nor was it immediately clear if those released would include any of the thousands of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule since the military coup.
State-run MRTV television reported that Sr Gen 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, according to the Associated Press.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse reported that the 180 foreigners were included in the 5,864 figure.
The foreigners to be released could include four Thai fishers 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, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 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.
Mass prisoner releases are common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar. Last year the junta announced the release of more than 9,000 prisoners to mark independence day.
In a separate report, MRTV 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 would have their sentences reduced by a sixth, except those convicted under the Explosive Substances Act, the Unlawful Associations Act, the Arms Act and the counter-terrorism law – all laws that 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 has been notorious for decades for housing political detainees, relatives of prisoners gathered at the gates from early morning.
The military’s 2021 takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle. The junta has said it will hold elections this year, but the plan has been widely condemned by opposition groups as a sham.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organisation, 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 association reported. At least 6,106 civilians have been killed by security forces in the same period, the group has said. Its tally does not include all casualties from combat.
Myanmar became a British colony in the late 19th century and regained its independence on 4 January 1948.
The annual independence day ceremony held in the heavily guarded capital, Naypyidaw, on Saturday morning saw about 500 government and military attendees.
A speech by Min Aung Hlaing, who was not present at the event, was delivered by deputy army chief Soe Win, who reiterated the junta’s call to dozens of ethnic minority armed groups that have been fighting it for the past four years to put down arms and “resolve the political issue through peaceful means”.
