Myanmar frees 6,000 prisoners on Independence Day

The Irrawaddy

Thousands of prisoners were released across Myanmar on Sunday as the military junta marked the country’s 78th Independence Day with its annual amnesty.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power in the 2021 coup, pardoned 6,134 Myanmar nationals along with 52 foreign prisoners, who will be deported. The National Defence and Security Council said the move was made on “humanitarian and compassionate grounds.”

At Yangon’s notorious Insein prison, buses carrying freed detainees rolled out to cheering crowds. Relatives waiting outside clutched placards with the names of loved ones, uncertain if they would be among those freed. Tearful reunions followed as men and women embraced family members after years behind bars.

Among those released was prominent model and former doctor Nang Mwe San, arrested in 2022 for allegedly “harming culture and dignity” through online posts. Others said they had been jailed for minor offences such as theft or loitering. “I am very happy to reunite with my family,” said 35-year-old Yazar Tun, who had served eight months of a one-year sentence.

The amnesty comes just a week after the junta opened voting in a phased general election, which rights groups and Western governments have condemned as a sham.

Official results show the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) winning around 90 per cent of seats announced so far. Two further rounds of voting are scheduled for later this month.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, remains absent from ballots after being dissolved following the coup. Suu Kyi herself has been jailed since 2021, and the military overturned her party’s landslide victory in the 2020 election, citing voter fraud claims dismissed by international observers.

Myanmar has a long tradition of granting mass pardons on major holidays. More than 9,000 prisoners were freed on Independence Day in 2024, and nearly 6,000 last year. Yet critics argue such gestures do little to mask the ongoing repression, economic hardship and civil conflict that continue to grip the country.

-2025-01-05