Myanmar's Junta Pardons Over 3K Prisoners For Buddhist New Year

Facts

• Myanmar's military on Monday announced that 3,113 prisoners, including 98 foreigners, were pardoned to celebrate the country's traditional Buddhist New Year. If they are found violating rules again, they would have to serve the remainder of their sentence with an additional penalty.¹
• The junta statement, however, fell short of detailing whether opposition protesters or journalists arrested covering the military takeover in February 2021 are among those freed. At least 170 journalists have been arrested since the coup, the UN said.²
• While releases began on Monday, it could take a few days for them to be completed. An official from Yangon's Insein Prison told the AP that the number and names of people to be freed from the penitentiary were not yet known.³
• The so-called "New Year amnesty" is an annual tradition in the country but the number of prisoners released this year and 2022 were low compared to 2021 when over 23K people were freed shortly after the change in power.⁴
• While over 3K have been killed by security forces since the military took power, over 17.6K people remain in junta prisons, including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.⁵
• Myanmar's State Administration Council has been under fire internationally for an airstrike in the Sagaing region last week, which reportedly killed at least a hundred civilians as the military-led government allegedly targeted opposition fighters.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²France 24, ³Associated Press, ⁴DW, ⁵Myanmar Now, and ⁶Bloomberg.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by XINHUA. Following the tradition, the Council has granted amnesty to thousands of detainees to mark the country's traditional New Year on humanitarian grounds and to improve relations with countries of freed foreign prisoners. In addition to this pardon, Myanmar released over 7K prisoners earlier this year to celebrate its 75th Independence Day.
• Narrative B, as provided by Radio Free Asia. While this is indeed great news for those freed and their families, the international community must not be deceived by Myanmar's New Year amnesty as thousands of political prisoners remain in jail. The junta is an authoritarian regime that has been arresting opposition and killing civilians to remain in power, it's time to take stronger action against the regime.