New Delhi: After extending the state of emergency in Myanmar by six months and postponing elections, the Myanmar military government pardoned ousted leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi Monday, on five of 19 charges, reducing her sentence by six years, from 33 to 27 years, state media reported.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, granted the Nobel Laureate as well as former President Win Myint amnesty and reportedly freed 7,749 other prisoners across Myanmar.
While both former leaders will continue to be detained, Suu Kyi has been moved to house arrest and Win Myint’s jail sentence has been reduced by four years.
The junta leader also released 125 foreign prisoners, dropped cases against 72 people linked to ethnic armed groups and released 22 members of such groups.
Suu Kyi, 78, received reduced sentences in five convictions — violating coronavirus restrictions, illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and sedition, among others — according to state media MRTV. Several of the cases against Suu Kyi, which human rights groups and supporters view as means to delegitimise the ousted leader as well as validate the 2021 military takeover, are yet to receive their final judgments.
While the junta had pledged to hold elections by this month when it took over Myanmar more than two years ago, the junta leader, along with the army-backed National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), extended the state of emergency to the end of this year due to ongoing violence in the country.
The junta’s official statement read, “While holding an election, in order to have an election that is free and fair and also to be able to vote without any fear, necessary security arrangements are still needed and so the period for the state of emergency is required to extend.”
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Junta not recognised in international sphere
The military takeover — a reaction to contentions regarding alleged election fraud — has wrecked Myanmar’s progress in reform, international engagement and economic growth.
In 2021, the military had stated that it took over power to investigate accusations of voter fraud against Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. The party has rejected these accusations.
Since the coup in 2021, Myanmar has been riddled with violence with roughly 6,337 civilians killed and 2,614 injured between February 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022, according to a report by Norway-based Peace Research Institute of Oslo.
Moreover, the junta, or the State Administration Council (SAC), is yet to be recognised in the international sphere as the government of Myanmar, with organisations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) excluding any representatives from the military government from its summits over the past two years.
However, last month Thailand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai revealed that he had secretly travelled to the conflict-ridden state and held a meeting with the coup leader and also visited jailed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi days before the ASEAN Foreign ministers’ meet in Jakarta on 12-13 July.
The ASEAN is an intergovernmental organisation comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Calling the visit “an approach of the friends of Myanmar, who would like to see a peaceful settlement” in the country, the Thai minister sparked controversy as the military junta has rejected all diplomatic requests to meet as well as to implement ASEAN’s five-point peace plan, which was agreed upon two years ago.
Over the past two years, numerous governments including the US and Indonesia, among others, and international organisations like the United Nations continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and thousands of political prisoners.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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