ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Myanmar Junta Grants Amnesties to More Than 7,300 Political Prisoners

The release is designed to reinforce the legitimacy of the incoming “civilian” administration and communicate signals of reform to foreign governments.

Myanmar’s military junta yesterday announced that it had granted an amnesty to more than 7,000 prisoners convicted of financing or sheltering “terrorists,” its designation for the various groups opposing its rule.

In a statement published by state media, the junta announced that leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had ordered the amnesty “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds as well as on the goodwill of the government” to mark the 64th Peasants’ Day.

Accordingly, he pardoned 7,337 prisoners convicted under Sections 50(J) and 52(A) of the Counter Terrorism Law, which forbids “financing of terrorism” and harboring or arranging transport for “any terrorist group.” Similar charges against another 12,487 individuals “were also withdrawn, and the offenders were pardoned.”

According to the AFP news agency, around 300 prisoners were bused out of Yangon’s Insein Prison in a convoy yesterday morning. “A gaggle of emotional relatives clutched bouquets of flowers and placards bearing loved-ones’ names as prisoners were released from Insein’s barbed-wire boundary shortly before noon,” it reported.

The mass prisoner release comes weeks after the junta held a multi-phase election that was almost universally denounced as a sham designed to entrench military rule behind a civilian façade.

As expected, the military’s proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), dominated the election, winning 233 of the 264 seats up for grabs in the lower house of Parliament and 108 seats of the 224 contested seats in the upper house. In addition to the seats that the military controls – a quarter of the total in both chambers – the USDP and its military backers, the Myanmar armed forces, are set to have a stranglehold over the direction of the next government. The new parliament is due to convene later this month, and will then select a president in early April.

Myanmar’s military juntas have frequently granted mass amnesties, often timed to public holidays, as a display of beneficence. In recent times, these have involved only a small number of political prisoners. However, as the military prepares for the important transition to a quasi-civilian government, it has ordered the release of thousands of dissidents and others detained for opposing military rule.

In late November, ahead of the first round of the election on December 28, the junta announced a similar amnesty, ordering the release of 3,085 prisoners convicted under Section 505(a) of the penal code. It also dropped charges against another 5,500. The purpose was to “ensure that all eligible voters do not lose their right to vote and can cast their votes freely and fairly in the upcoming multi-party democratic general election,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

Like the earlier release of political prisoners, yesterday’s amnesty is clearly designed to reinforce the legitimacy of the incoming “civilian” USDP administration and communicate signals of reform to foreign governments. At the same time, it is highly conditional. Both this week’s release and that in November came with the condition that prisoners “will have to serve the new punishment together with the remaining punishment” if they reoffend and are rearrested. In effect, most will be under a loose form of house arrest.

In a statement, Burma Campaign U.K. said that it was important for the outside world to recognize that the releases were “not a sign of change or reform.”

“The Burmese military, fighting for their survival, are cynically using political prisoners as a propaganda tool; this is not a sign of reform,” Mark Farmaner, the group’s director, said in the statement. “The Burmese military should not be praised for releasing people who should never have been detained in the first place.”

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Myanmar’s military junta yesterday announced that it had granted an amnesty to more than 7,000 prisoners convicted of financing or sheltering “terrorists,” its designation for the various groups opposing its rule.

In a statement published by state media, the junta announced that leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had ordered the amnesty “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds as well as on the goodwill of the government” to mark the 64th Peasants’ Day.

Accordingly, he pardoned 7,337 prisoners convicted under Sections 50(J) and 52(A) of the Counter Terrorism Law, which forbids “financing of terrorism” and harboring or arranging transport for “any terrorist group.” Similar charges against another 12,487 individuals “were also withdrawn, and the offenders were pardoned.”

According to the AFP news agency, around 300 prisoners were bused out of Yangon’s Insein Prison in a convoy yesterday morning. “A gaggle of emotional relatives clutched bouquets of flowers and placards bearing loved-ones’ names as prisoners were released from Insein’s barbed-wire boundary shortly before noon,” it reported.

The mass prisoner release comes weeks after the junta held a multi-phase election that was almost universally denounced as a sham designed to entrench military rule behind a civilian façade.

As expected, the military’s proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), dominated the election, winning 233 of the 264 seats up for grabs in the lower house of Parliament and 108 seats of the 224 contested seats in the upper house. In addition to the seats that the military controls – a quarter of the total in both chambers – the USDP and its military backers, the Myanmar armed forces, are set to have a stranglehold over the direction of the next government. The new parliament is due to convene later this month, and will then select a president in early April.

Myanmar’s military juntas have frequently granted mass amnesties, often timed to public holidays, as a display of beneficence. In recent times, these have involved only a small number of political prisoners. However, as the military prepares for the important transition to a quasi-civilian government, it has ordered the release of thousands of dissidents and others detained for opposing military rule.

In late November, ahead of the first round of the election on December 28, the junta announced a similar amnesty, ordering the release of 3,085 prisoners convicted under Section 505(a) of the penal code. It also dropped charges against another 5,500. The purpose was to “ensure that all eligible voters do not lose their right to vote and can cast their votes freely and fairly in the upcoming multi-party democratic general election,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

Like the earlier release of political prisoners, yesterday’s amnesty is clearly designed to reinforce the legitimacy of the incoming “civilian” USDP administration and communicate signals of reform to foreign governments. At the same time, it is highly conditional. Both this week’s release and that in November came with the condition that prisoners “will have to serve the new punishment together with the remaining punishment” if they reoffend and are rearrested. In effect, most will be under a loose form of house arrest.

In a statement, Burma Campaign U.K. said that it was important for the outside world to recognize that the releases were “not a sign of change or reform.”

“The Burmese military, fighting for their survival, are cynically using political prisoners as a propaganda tool; this is not a sign of reform,” Mark Farmaner, the group’s director, said in the statement. “The Burmese military should not be praised for releasing people who should never have been detained in the first place.”

Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat. 

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