Myanmar’s military government pardons thousands of prisoners ahead of parliament convening

BANGKOK (AP) — The head of Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to thousands of prisoners, mostly political detainees, and activists being prosecuted or in hiding, state-run media reported Monday.

There was no sign former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then, would be freed. However, according to independent online media reports, those freed included former members of her government and her National League for Democracy party, including Myo Aung, a former mayor of the capital, Naypyitaw.

The amnesty, which coincides with Peasants’ Day, a national holiday honoring farmers, comes two weeks before parliament is set to convene for its first session in more than five years, following the recent election that critics said was neither free nor fair.

About a dozen buses carrying prisoners were welcomed outside the gate of the Insein prison in the country’s largest city of Yangon at 11 a.m. by relatives and friends who had been waiting since the announcement earlier Monday.

Tinzar Aung, 30, who was freed from Insein prison, told The Associated Press: “I am very happy. I pray that all those who are still in prison will be released.” She was sentenced in 2022 to seven years in prison under a counterterrorism law, which carries a potential death penalty and was widely used to arrest and imprison political and armed opponents, journalists, and others involved in dissent since the army takeover five years ago.

State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 10,162 prisoners, including 7,337 convicted under the counterterrorism law. MRTV also said 12,487 others, who were either being prosecuted under that law or were in hiding, will receive amnesty and have their cases closed, as well as 10 foreigners.

Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar, an independent watchdog group that records human rights violations in Myanmar’s prisons, said in a statement that it has initially counted the release of 324 political prisoners from 10 prisons.

The identities of those released were not immediately available, but online reports said members of university student unions in Yangon were included in the first group freed.

The Democratic Voice of Burma reported that journalist Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun, sentenced to 13 years in prison in May 2023, was also released.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts, more than 22,800 political detainees were incarcerated as of Feb. 27. They include the 80-year-old Suu Kyi, who is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted in what supporters have called politically tinged prosecutions.

Mass amnesties to mark holidays are not unusual in the Southeast Asian nation.

The prisoners’ release began Monday but may take a few days.