Mass amnesty: Myanmar military junta releases 5,600 prisoners

Mass amnesty
Military junta in Myanmar releases 5,600 prisoners

A crying mother hugs her daughter who has been released from Insein Prison in Yangon. Photo: Uncredited / AP / dpa

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After the Southeast Asian states have excluded junta leader Hlaing from their next summit, thousands of prisoners are suddenly released. International pressure works, say human rights activists.

The military junta in Myanmar has ordered a mass amnesty for more than 5,600 prisoners nationwide. On Monday evening, the first inmates left the Insein Detention Center in the largest city of Yangon, known for its brutal torture methods.

All of them were arrested when the generals came to power in early February. Numerous relatives and friends waited for hours in front of the prisons in the Southeast Asian crisis country, many people lay crying in each other’s arms.

Observers see the generals’ move as a direct reaction to the announcement by the Southeast Asian community of states, Asean, that junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will be banned from their next summit meeting in late October. As an explanation, the Asean cited a lack of progress in the implementation of a five-point plan agreed at the end of April. Among other things, it was about an end to violence and the beginning of a dialogue with social forces in the crisis country.

Persecution of the people continues

“The releases are clearly not because the junta changed,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews. The arbitrary arrest and persecution of people who only exercise their basic human rights continues unabated. Rather, the amnesty is a result of the pressure “on the junta inside and outside Myanmar,” said Andrews.

According to the AAPP prisoners’ aid organization, more than 9,000 people have been detained for resisting the junta since the February 1 coup. Currently around 7,300 are said to be in prison. At least 1,181 people were killed. Most recently, the military government ordered a mass amnesty for 2,300 prisoners at the end of June.

The prominent human rights activist Wai Wai Nu posted on her Facebook page: “International pressure works. Historically, political prisoners are only released when the juntas want to reduce international pressure and gain legitimacy. “

Mistreatment in detention

According to eyewitnesses, several hundred prisoners had been released by Tuesday morning. Many more are to follow in the course of the day. “Two of my friends were released last night,” Lin Lin, a Yangon citizen, told the German Press Agency. “I’ve been waiting outside Insein Prison since the evening and I’m so happy to see them both.”

Andrews emphasized that many prisoners suffered extremely – and that some did not survive imprisonment. “Many of the detainees were tortured, some to death, others were victims of sexual assault, some were infected with Covid-19 and died in the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.” It is outrageous that citizens are arbitrarily arrested at all.

dpa

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