The Myanmar junta has detained over 100 people who had been released under an amnesty agreement

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

According to a local monitoring group that records detentions and killings in Myanmar, the junta has re-arrested more than 100 anti-coup demonstrators who were released in a recent amnesty.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the Southeast Asian nation has been in upheaval since the February coup, with over 1,100 people killed in a crackdown on dissent and over 8,000 people detained (AAPP).

 

On Monday, the military announced that nearly 5,000 inmates will be released during the three-day Buddhist Thadingyut festival, sending worried families racing to jails in the hopes of seeing their loved ones again.

It's difficult to know how many people were released around the country, and many were only released after signing forms pledging not to reoffend.

According to the AAPP, at least 110 of those who were pardoned have since been re-arrested.

 

It added in a statement on Thursday that "several were... rearrested as soon as they returned home" (Oct 21).

"Others were told they were on the release list and taken to the jail entrance, only to be returned to prison when new charges were filed."

 

More than 2,000 anti-coup protestors were released from prisons across Myanmar in June, including journalists critical of the military regime.

The American journalist Danny Fenster, who has been held since his arrest on May 24, is still in detention.

The most recent amnesty comes nearly nine months after the military seized power and is under increasing pressure to cooperate with its opponents.

 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) voted last week to keep junta head Min Aung Hlaing out of an upcoming ASEAN conference due to concerns about his commitment to ending the bloodshed.

The United States applauded ASEAN's uncommon step, which has been criticised as toothless, according to Derek Chollet, a State Department advisor.