About 23,314 prisoners will receive amnesty and will be released on Union Day, a national holiday that sees the country’s unification, General Min Aung Hlaing said in a statement. It is not clear for what crimes the prisoners were convicted.
Although mass release of prisoners is common on national holidays in Myanmar, this is the first such amnesty by the new junta, which took power in a coup on February 1, expelling democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and arresting officials government.
The military justified taking control of the country on the grounds of widespread irregularities in the vote in the November 2020 election, which gave Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party a second consecutive overwhelming victory.
In a statement on Friday, the Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) expressed “serious concern” that the amnesty was aimed at “making room for the detention of political prisoners”.
In addition to release, prisoners serving sentences for crimes committed before January 31, 2021, for any crime, will also have their sentences reduced, according to the military statement.
In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing said that the prisoner amnesty was part of an effort to build a “democratic, disciplined country”.
There is no indication that Suu Kyi or other government ministers or officials detained in the coup will be released as part of the amnesty. Nor is the amnesty unlikely to calm the demonstrators’ anger at military generals.
Protests and civil disobedience campaigns continued in towns and cities across the country on Friday. Videos and live streams posted online showed several groups marching in the largest city in Yangon, including medical professionals and football fans.
Large meetings are also expected at the embassies of the United States, China and England in Yangon.
The demonstrations so far have been peaceful, but the police have been registered using water cannons against the protesters. The police also faced allegations that they deployed live tours.
A young woman named Mya Thweh Thweh Khine remains in critical condition on Friday morning at a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw with a gunshot to the head, a source with direct information about the victim told CNN.
The video of the incident that circulated online showed a young woman suddenly falling to the ground while protecting herself from a water cannon in a protest.
Experts from Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Laboratory said images taken near a protest in Naypyidaw on February 9 show a policeman holding a local variant of an Uzi submachine gun.
The human rights group said the images were taken from a location near the Thabyegone roundabout, across the road where the young woman was shot in the head.
Amnesty said it has checked the coordinates of the image showing an officer holding a “BA-94 or BA-93 Uzi clone made in Myanmar”. CNN was unable to verify the image independently.
The findings are in direct contradiction to the military’s claims that no lethal weapons were used during the protests, Amnesty said.
The Myanmar military posted on its Facebook page on February 10 that they only used riot weapons in the protest near the Thabyegone roundabout and were investigating reports that two protesters had been injured.
Sam Dubberley, head of Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Laboratory, said in a press release: “The serious injuries sustained by this young woman were caused by the Myanmar police by firing live ammunition directly at peaceful protesters.”
Mya Thweh Thweh Khine has since become a symbol of the protests, with protesters holding up portraits of their image as they marched.
On Thursday, Min Aung Hlaing issued a warning to protesters, who include a large part of society, including monks and an increasing number of civil servants, urging them to return to work.
“Those who are removed from their duties are asked to return to their duties immediately for the interests of the country and the people, without focusing on emotion,” he said.
Min Aung Hlaing blamed the recent absenteeism of government officials for harassing “unscrupulous people” in a statement issued by the government’s official intelligence service.
In response to ongoing protests, the country’s military has sought to limit access to the Internet and news services, as well as launching a new cybersecurity law that observers fear may further limit the flow of information.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would move ahead with sanctions against Myanmar’s military leaders after last week’s coup.
In brief comments, the president said he had approved a new executive order allowing the United States to “immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their commercial interests, as well as their close family members”. He said they would identify the targets of these sanctions this week.
Biden also called on the military junta to release detained protesters and civilian leaders, including Suu Kyi and Win Myint, and to end the crackdown on protesters.
CNN’s Helen Regan contributed reporting.