[ AFP / THE ASEAN POST ] Junta Frees Thousands Of Anti-Coup Protesters
Myanmar authorities released more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters from prisons across the country on Wednesday, including local journalists jailed after reporting critically on the junta’s bloody crackdown.
By the evening, a total of 2,296 protesters had been released from prisons around the country, the junta’s information team said in a statement.
Journalist Kay Zon Nway of Myanmar Now was among those freed from Insein, the news outlet said in a statement.
She said she had experienced “many things,” in the notorious jail, but added that she would explain later.
There were no foreigners among those released from Insein on Wednesday, a prison official said on condition of anonymity.
Ye Myo Khant, a 20-year-old photojournalist for the Myanmar Press Agency, was freed Wednesday after a 120-day detention.
“I was reporting when they unjustly arrested me,” he said.
While the release will be welcomed by individuals and reunited families, it “will do nothing to blunt popular resistance to military rule”, Richard Horsey, senior advisor on Myanmar to the International Crisis Group, said.
“They should never have been detained. We should also remember that some of these people have faced brutal interrogations and torture that will leave lasting damage, visible and invisible.”
In February, the junta released around 23,000 prisoners, with some rights groups at the time fearing the move was to free up space for opponents of the military as well as to cause chaos in communities.
Ousted leader Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since the coup, asked the people of Myanmar to stay “united” in the face of military rule, her lawyers relayed Tuesday as she reappeared in a junta court.
