On the occasion of the “Buddhist New Year,” Myanmar’s Junta is projecting to release 3,000 prisoners

To celebrate the “Buddhist New Year,” Myanmar’s junta started freeing more than “3,000 inmates” on April 17, 2023, without saying whether or not those who were imprisoned during its brutal crackdown on dissent would also be released.

Since the military’s takeover more than two years ago, which rocked the nation and spawned a “series of bloody skirmishes” with anti-coup militants, hundreds of people have been kept in jail.

According to the Junta’s Information Team, the leader of the Junta, Min Aung Hlaing, “forgives 3,015 prisoners” to mark the Myanmar New Year for peace in the society and on the grounds of humanity.

The announcement stated that “those who re-offend are liable to serve their remaining sentence with an added penalty.”

According to another statement made by Junta, “98 additional foreigners who were serving prison sentences in Myanmar will also be forgiven and released.”

Following the announcement, some 100 people congregated in front of the “Insein prison” in the bustling city of Yangon in the hopes that their friends and loved ones would be released.

When the junta released over 23,000 detainees shortly after its coup, human rights organisations at the time worried that this would allow the military’s detractors to flourish and wreak havoc on local populations.

To celebrate its annual “Buddhist New Year” holiday, the nation regularly offers Liberty to thousands of prisoners.

According to a local monitoring organisation, since the military overthrew the “government of Aung San Suu Kyi” in February 2021, more than 21,000 individuals have been detained.

Suu Kyi has also been detained since the “early hours of the takeover.”

The 77-year-old “Nobel Peace Prize” winner was sentenced to 33 years in prison by the junta in December after concluding a string of secret hearings that rights organisations have denounced as a fraud.

The United Nations reports that since the coup, “at least 170 media reporters have been detained.”

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