Burma will free more than 5,000 people imprisoned for protesting against the coup of the army in February, announced on Monday the head of the military board, days after being excluded from the next Summit of the Association of Southeast Asia (ASEAN)
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A total of 5,636 prisoners will be indulged and released before the Thatingyut lights festival that begins on Tuesday, General Min Aung Hlaing said.
Burma is immersed in chaos since the coup d’état that overthrew the civil government of Aung San Suu Kyi and put an end to a parenthesis of a decade of democracy in the country.
Since then, the army carries out a bloody repression with more than 1,100 dead civilians and more than 8,000 people arrested, according to the Local NGO Assistance Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP).
According to this organization, more than 7,300 people are currently imprisoned throughout the country.
The military junta did not give details of who would be released and the penitentiary authorities, contacted by the AFP, did not want to respond.
At the end of June, the authorities released more than 2,000 opponents to the coup d’état, detained in several prisons in the country, among which were local journalists for having criticized the repression of the military.
The Chief Editor of Frontier Myanmar, Danny Fenster, of American nationality, is still detained in the Insein prison near Rangoon, from his arrest on May 24.
More than 1,300 people who can be released will be on condition that they sign a document in which they promise that they will not reside, said General Min Aung Hlaing.
For these people it is “fundamentally of a form of probation that implies constant and threatening surveillance,” said Analyst David Mathieson, specialist in Burma.
“This does not absolve the SAC (State Administration Council or State Board of Directors, as the Board is self-annominated) of nine months of extreme violence.”
This announcement takes place after the ASEAN excluded min Aung Hlaing from the next summit following crisis management by the military government.
Instead, the Foreign Ministers of the Bloc decided to invite the meeting, scheduled from October 26 to 28, to a Burmese “Apolitic Representative”.
The organization, which brings together 10 countries from Southeast Asia, including Burma, took this exceptional decision after the Board rejected the shipment of a Special Representative to dialogue “with all interested parties”, including former Aung San Suu Kyi leader.
Overthrown by the army in February, Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, and Nobel Peace Prize, is raised for violating restrictions linked to Covid-19 during last year’s elections, that his party had won loosely.
Among other charges, it is also accused of illegally imported Walkie-Talkies, and can be sentenced to several years in prison if convicted.
The communiqué of ASEAN noted “insufficient progress” in the implementation of a five-point plan, adopted in April, which should help restore dialogue in Burma and facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid.
The Burmese military junta criticized the decision, accusing the ASEAN to break down with the tradition of the block not to interfere with the internal affairs of its Member States.
