Myanmar on Saturday announced a pardon for 814 prisoners and seven foreign prisoners to mark the Diamond Jubilee Union Day, state-run media reports said.
The UN Security Council adopted its first resolution on Myanmar in 74 years on Wednesday to demand an end to violence and urge the military junta to release all political prisoners, including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar’s military-controlled government announced Thursday it was releasing and deporting an Australian academic, as part of a broad prisoner amnesty.
NAY PYI TAW, MYANMAR: Families of detained Myanmar protesters had their hopes dashed Sunday after political prisoners were not included in some 1,600 people released by the junta to mark the Buddhist new year. The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government was ousted last year in a […]
Recently released inmates say the colonial-era facility in Yangon is infested with rats, a place where bribes are common, prisoners pay for sleeping space on the floor and widespread illness goes untreated.
Myanmar on Saturday announced a pardon for 814 prisoners and seven foreign prisoners to mark the Diamond Jubilee Union Day, state-run media reports said.
The junta announced the release of 1,316 prisoners from various facilities throughout the country as well as 4,320 detainees who faced ongoing cases for anti-junta activities, including well-known politicians, celebrities, film actors and journalists.
YANGON, Oct 18: Myanmar will release more than 5,000 people jailed for protesting against a February coup which ousted the civilian government, the country's junta chief said Monday. A total of 5,636 prisoners will be freed to mark the Thadingyut festival later in October, Min Aung Hlaing said, days after he was excluded from a regional summit over his government's commitment to defusing the bloody crisis.
Myanmar has been mired in chaos since the coup, with more than 1,100 civilians killed in a bloody crackdown on dissent and more than 8,000 arrested according to a local monitoring group. More than 7,300 are currently behind bars across the country, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The junta chief gave no details on who would be included in the list and prison authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment. Myanmar authorities released more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters from prisons across the country in July, including journalists critical of the military government.
Those still in custody include the American journalist Danny Fenster, who has been held since being arrested on May 24. - Junta shunned - The announcement of the amnesty comes after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Friday decided to exclude Min Aung Hlaing from an upcoming summit over the military government's handling of the crisis. Foreign ministers of the bloc agreed that a "non-political representative" for Myanmar would be invited to the October 26-28 summit instead.
The bloc, widely criticised as a toothless organisation, took a strong stand after the junta rebuffed requests that a special envoy meet with "all stakeholders" in Myanmar -- a phrase seen to include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The statement noted "insufficient progress" in the implementation of a five-point plan agreed by ASEAN leaders in April to end turmoil following the coup.
The junta slammed the decision, accusing ASEAN of breaching its policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states. Myanmar, mostly ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, has been a thorn in ASEAN's side since it joined in 1997. Min Aung Hlaing's administration has justified its power grab citing alleged vote rigging in last year's elections, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won convincingly.
The coup snuffed out Myanmar's short-lived dalliance with democracy and the 76-year-old Suu Kyi now faces a raft of charges in a junta court that could see her jailed for decades. Last week her chief lawyer said he had been banned by the junta from speaking to journalists, diplomats or international organisations. Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who has spent much of her life resisting Myanmar's generals, is scheduled to testify in court for the first time later this month.
YANGON, April 25: Myanmar's shadow government of ousted lawmakers has welcomed a call by Southeast Asian leaders for an end to "military violence" after their crisis talks in Jakarta with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
The general attended a high-level summit Saturday with leaders from the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss Myanmar's mounting crisis.
Since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup, Myanmar has been in an uproar -- with near-daily protests and a nationwide boycott of work in all sectors of society staged to demand a return to democracy.
Security forces have deployed live ammunition to quell the uprising, killing more than 740 people in brutal crackdowns, according to local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
But the ASEAN meeting produced a consensus that there would be "an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar", said a statement released by the bloc Saturday night.
ASEAN will also have a special envoy to "facilitate mediation" between all parties, and this representative will be able to travel to Myanmar.
A spokesperson from a shadow government of ousted lawmakers -- many of whom are from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party -- on Saturday welcomed the call for an end to violence in Myanmar as "encouraging news".
"This is what the National Unity Government has been calling for," said the NUG's minister of international cooperation known as Dr Sasa, who is currently in hiding with the rest of his fellow lawmakers.
"We eagerly await the engagement by the (ASEAN) secretary general... we look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and restore our democracy and freedom for our people and for the region."
The lawmakers of the NUG are currently wanted for high treason by the junta.
- 'Will the killing stop?' -
As Myanmar nears three months under the military regime, escalating violence by its security forces -- especially in urban centres -- has pushed protesters and prominent activists into hiding.
The junta has also throttled communications across the country, imposing a nightly internet shutdown for 70 consecutive days and restricting mobile data to a mere trickle -- shunting the nation into an information blackout.
On Saturday, as Min Aung Hlaing attended the meeting with ASEAN leaders and foreign ministers in Jakarta, soldiers and police fired on protesters near Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw.
One 50-year-old protester was held by the police and shot dead by a soldier, an eyewitness told AFP.
The number of detainees climbed to 3,389 on Saturday, according to AAPP. While ASEAN leaders said they "heard calls for the release of all political prisoners", a commitment to free them was not included in their consensus statement.
UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said it remains to be seen how effective the bloc's engagement will be.
"The result of the ASEAN Summit will be found in Myanmar, not (in) a document," Andrews tweeted Sunday. "Will the killing stop? Will the terrorizing of neighborhoods end? Will the thousands abducted be released? Will impunity persist?"
Andrews added that he was "anxious" to work with ASEAN's special envoy. The junta has justified its power seizure as a means to protect democracy, alleging electoral fraud in November elections which Suu Kyi's party had won in a landslide.
YANGON, Myanmar, April 18: Myanmar’s junta on Saturday released more than 23,000 prisoners to mark the traditional new year holiday, including at least three political detainees, and the military leader behind the February coup confirmed he would attend a regional summit later this month.
MYANMAR, April 17: Myanmar will free almost 25,000 prisoners in an amnesty to mark the traditional New Year, the president’s office said on Friday, its largest mass pardon in recent years.
