Myanmar’s military junta has pardoned and ordered the release of more than 3,000 political prisoners and dropped charges against more than 5,500 others ahead of next month’s controversial election, state media reported yesterday. State-run broadcaster MRTV stated that the amnesty was granted “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.
According to notices published in the Global New Light of Myanmar today, the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) authorized the release of 3,085 prisoners convicted under Section 505(a) of the penal code. Section 505(a) criminalizes the distribution of false news, or any act that causes “fear to a group of citizens or to the public.” The charge, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison, has been used against thousands of people who have resisted the military’s seizure of power in February 2021.
The NDSC also dropped charges against 5,580 additional people who have been charged, but not yet convicted, under Section 505(a). It is unclear if any prisoners have yet been released. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a prominent civil society group, 30,031 people have been arrested since the coup, 22,708 of whom remain in detention.
The military’s elections, which will be held in several phases beginning on December 28, have been roundly criticized as a sham process designed to enshrine military rule under a protective “civilian” façade and a means of normalizing its international relationships. Few observers expect it to be free or fair. In 2023, the military junta dissolved 40 political parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won both the 2015 and 2020 elections in a landslide, and has exercised tight control on which parties can register for the upcoming polls. Scores of opposition politicians, including the 80-year-old Suu Kyi, remain in prison.
In preparation for the polls, the military has ramped up its air and ground assaults against resistance-controlled regions of the country, and readied a new suite of punitive laws intended to prevent any attempt to disrupt the polls. This week’s amnesty is clearly designed to serve the same ends. This is not the first time that the military has released political prisoners. Around 600 people charged under Section 505 were among the 5,864-odd prisoners released on the occasion of Independence Day in January.
Since the coup, the junta has announced periodic prisoner amnesties, usually timed to important occasions in the Buddhist calendar, a means of buttressing the military’s legitimacy. These have usually involved just a small number of political prisoners. In this case, the amnesty is clearly designed to ensure maximum support for (and participation in) the upcoming election, which will face considerable logistical hurdles due to the unstable political situation in many parts of the country.
As Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign U.K. noted on X, the amnesty was “wonderful news” for the prisoners, but also clear that they were “being used for public relations purposes by Burmese military to try to build a fake narrative of reform” ahead of the upcoming election.
As this might suggest, the release is highly conditional. Of the 3,085 prisoners granted an amnesty, 724 were explicitly granted conditional release, with the notice stating that if they re-offend “they will have to serve the new punishment together with the remaining punishment.” There is little stopping the military from rearresting any of the remaining pardoned prisoners, should they attempt to mobilize opposition to its rule.
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