Burmese junta pardons nearly 6,000 prisoners for independence anniversary – rts.ch

About 600 of them had been convicted under Article 505 of the penal code, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in an audio statement to media. This law prohibits any action deemed likely to harm the army and provides a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

The spokesperson said that “most” of the foreigners pardoned were Thai nationals who had been arrested in casinos on the border between the two countries. The army said it had ordered the pardons “for humanitarian and compassionate reasons”.

Thousands of families arrested

She also announced that 144 people sentenced to life in prison would see their sentences commuted to 15 years of imprisonment. Since its February 2021 coup, which ended a brief democratic experiment in Burma, the army has arrested thousands of people.

The country has been in the grip of increased unrest since the coup d’état which reignited fighting with a multitude of ethnic armed groups fighting the army for decades to obtain their autonomy and control of lucrative resources (jade, wood or even opium).

The government regularly grants amnesty to thousands of prisoners on the occasion of commemorations or Buddhist festivals. In 2024, the junta had released more than 9,000 detainees, again on the anniversary of independence.

Call for national unity

Saturday morning, the annual ceremony organized in the capital Naypyidaw was held under heavy protection, in front of an audience of some 500 members of the government and military. Deputy army chief Soe Win delivered a speech on behalf of absent junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.

Soe Win reiterated the junta’s call for dozens of ethnic armed groups in conflict with it to lay down their arms and “settle the political situation through peaceful means.”

He further reiterated the army’s commitment to organizing democratic elections, and called for national unity.

hkr with afp