MYANMAR Burmese junta frees 6,000 prisoners, but does not end crackdown

There are four foreigners among those released. But yesterday a Christian singer and peace activist was returned to jail immediately after his release. In the past two days, at least three children have died as a result of the regime’s bombardments.

Yangon ( / Agencies) – The Burmese coup junta announced this morning that, on the occasion of National Victory Day, which celebrates independence from Great Britain, it will grant a general amnesty and release thousands of political prisoners, including four foreign citizens .

According to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Aapp), since the February 2021 coup the military has arrested more than 16,000 civilians. The coup overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, sentenced in mock trials to 26 years in prison, and began a brutal conflict with no end in sight and in which hundreds of civilians, including children, continue to lose their lives. . In the past two days, the army shelled a kindergarten in Kayah state and a naming ceremony (a Buddhist practice akin to baptism) in Rakhine.

It is not the first time that the military regime celebrates national holidays with the release of prisoners. However, on previous occasions, hundreds of inmates have been re-arrested even before they cross the jail’s exit threshold.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said 5,774 prisoners will be released, including 700 detainees since the coup. The foreigners are former British ambassador Vicky Bowman (along with her Burmese husband), Australian economist and former adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi Sean Turnell, Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota and a US citizen jailed on terrorism charges.

It is not yet clear whether the junta will ask for concessions from the international community to ease the political pressure after the release.

Meanwhile, arrests and shelling continue across the country. News broke yesterday that Christian activist and reggae singer Saw Phoe Khwar, a member of the Karen ethnic group, was returned to prison after serving more than a year in prison. He had been arrested the day of the coup for incitement and “violation of the law on natural disasters.” The board claims that the singer served the months in jail for the first charge alone and for that reason he was returned to Insein prison, on the outskirts of Rangoon.

Saw Phoe Khwar had written several satirical songs against the Burmese army and supported Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party during her successful 2020 election campaign. In a 2013 interview with The Irrawaddy, she had stated that hate and lack of love for the other are the main causes of religious violence. He had also condemned ethnic pride, which some pass off as patriotism and which has led to decades of conflict in Myanmar.