In what has become a customary move to mark Myanmar's Independence Day on January 4, the military junta announced a mass amnesty, releasing nearly 10,000 prisoners. The action, however, was criticized by political and human rights activists who said it lacks political significance, with less than 100 political prisoners among those granted amnesty.
Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and co-founder of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, or AAPP, a Myanmar human rights monitoring group, expressed concerns about the release's impact on public safety.
In a statement to VOA, he said, "As usual, only a few political prisoners were released. It is customary to release them on big days like this. Among those released are usually only criminals. This is a concern for public safety. This release has never contributed to national reconciliation and peace. If it is a true act of service, all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, must be released unconditionally."
Over the past three years, the military junta has announced 12 amnesties, resulting in the release of nearly 90,000 prisoners. However, according to AAPP's list, 5,800 political prisoners have been released, less than 7% of the total.
According to AAPP's latest statement, from the February 2021 coup until January 3, 25,730 people were arrested by the military council. Currently, 19,930 people remain incarcerated, with 8,457 of them sentenced to prison terms.
Myanmar's ruling military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, pardoned 9,652 prisoners Thursday, on what a statement referred to as “humanitarian and compassionate grounds.”
The the junta chief also pardoned 114 jailed foreigners, who the government said will be deported. While the identities and nationalities of the foreign prisoners were not disclosed, the junta said the pardons were made for the sake of bilateral relations and on humanitarian grounds.
Selective release among detained NLD leaders
Among those freed by the mass amnesty were two high-profile members of the National League for Democracy, or NLD — Dr. Hla Myat Thwe, former minister of social welfare in the Ayayarwady Region during the NLD government, and Dr. Ye Lwin, ousted mayor of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city after Yangon. Nearly 2,000 NLD party members, including other top leaders, remain imprisoned.
Sithu Maung, Myanmar's youngest lawmaker and an NLD member, expressed his views from a liberated area controlled by ethnic armed groups. Speaking with VOA via Zoom on Thursday, he said, "Without the release of the party’s top leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, the junta’s so-called amnesty was completely absent with its political will and willingness to solve the problem."
Suu Kyi, the 78-year-old Nobel laureate, remains sentenced to 27 years in prison on various charges brought by the military, including election fraud, coronavirus restriction violations and corruption.
Maung said the Independence Day celebration are “devoid of political substance, emphasizing the ongoing challenges in a country under military control.”
Since the coup in February 2021, the junta has arrested 1,910 NLD members, with at least 1,269 still in detention, according to a report by the NLD’s Human Rights Documentation Team in October.
Maung pointed out that the international community, as per United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2669, encourages the release of Suu Kyi and her political associates. The current situation, he argued, “falls short of international expectations for a genuine resolution.”
A bittersweet liberation
Outside the infamous Insein Prison in Myanmar’s old capital, Yangon, the families of freed prisoners waited for their loved ones to be released. Videos and photos of the scene show tearful reunions as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters embrace after years of imprisonment in a prison known for its inhumane conditions.
Photojournalist Kaung Sett Lin, a member of the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, or MPA, like many released on Thursday, could be seen waving from the window of a prison bus before rushing to hug his family.
Kaung Sett Lin and a fellow photojournalist, a woman named Hmu Yadanar Moh Moh Tun, were arrested on December 5, 2021, while covering a coup protest in Yangon.
Both journalists were seriously injured during the incident, with Kaung Sett Lin suffering a broken back and leg, as well as serious head and eye injuries. Hmu Yadanar reportedly received serious head injuries from being hit by a military vehicle during the arrests. Reports at the time said that five protesters were killed during the incident when the military opened fire on the crowd.
Despite Kaung Sett Linn’s early release, his female colleague remains imprisoned, having received a 10-year sentence.
J Paing, the chief editor and co-founder of the MPA, expressed mixed emotions about the release of his colleague. "It's good news that he was freed,” Paing told VOA on Thursday. “However, after being released, there are those who have reposted opinions on the military junta's lobby channels expressing a desire for him to be rearrested. We are, therefore, worried about him."
The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, has called for the release of all detained journalists in Myanmar.
Critics of the junta say that mass pardons often involve those who have already served most of their sentences, and there have been instances of rearrest shortly after release.
Research by the VOA Burmese service indicates that approximately 40 journalists are still held in prisons across Myanmar, even after the recent mass pardon.
Among them is VOA Burmese contributor Sithu Aung Myint, sentenced to 12 years in prison by the junta. Sithu Aung Myint had contributed fact-based news analysis to a VOA Burmese weekly program until his arrest in August 2021.
