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Myanmar junta to free 5,864 prisoners under amnesty


NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar’s military government will release 5,864 prisoners, including 180 foreigners, under an amnesty marking the Southeast Asian nation’s independence day, state media said on Saturday. It did not give details of what the prisoners had been convicted of or the nationalities of the foreign detainees who were set to be deported on release.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021, when the military overthrew an elected civilian government and violently suppressed pro-democracy protests, sparking a nationwide armed rebellion.

The military said it ordered the pardons “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds”.

The junta also announced that 144 people who had been sentenced to life in prison would have their sentences commuted to 15 years. The country has been granting amnesty to thousands of prisoners to commemorate holidays or Buddhist festivals.

Last year, the junta announced the release of more than 9,000 prisoners to mark independence day.

The annual independence day ceremony held in the heavily guarded capital Naypyidaw on Saturday morning saw around 500 government and military attendees.

A speech by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who was not present at the event, was delivered by deputy army chief Soe Win.

Soe Win reiterated the junta’s call to dozens of ethnic minority armed groups that have been fighting it for the last four years to put down arms and “resolve the political issue through peaceful means”.

He repeated a military pledge to hold delayed democratic elections and called for national unity.

The junta has said it will hold elections this year, but the plan has been widely condemned by opposition groups as a sham.

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