Hundreds of prisoners, including a former government minister and a model, walked free in Myanmar Sunday after the junta announced annual independence day pardons, a week after the start of an election that watchdogs have denounced as sham.
The military grabbed power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war, pitting pro-democracy rebels against junta forces, with thousands of activists since arrested.
A dozen buses full of released prisoners exited Yangon’s Insein prison Sunday morning, with some waving to crowds of well-wishers.
Family members outside Insein - notorious for alleged brutal rights abuses - held up signs with the names of their jailed loved ones, unsure if they would be among those freed.
One man, who declined to be named due to security concerns, said he was hoping to see his father, who was jailed for “doing politics”.
Ex-information minister Ye Htut was among those freed, after serving more than two years of a 10-year sentence for sedition and incitement against the military.
“I was informed about my release early Sunday morning. I didn’t expect that,” Ye Htut said adding that he had been held in isolation and was not allowed family visits while detained.
He was the presidential spokesman under the military government of Thein Sein, which ceded power to democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi following landmark elections in 2015.
Ye Htut was sentenced in late 2023, weeks after he was arrested for spreading “wrong information” on social media.
In total, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pardoned 6,134 imprisoned Myanmar nationals, the National Defence and Security Council said, adding that 52 foreign prisoners would also be released and deported.
The yearly prisoner amnesty was announced as the country marks 78 years of independence from British colonial rule.
Several freed men and women embraced relatives in tears outside Insein.
Some who spoke said they had been arrested for drugs, theft and other non-political crimes.
“I am very happy to reunite with my family,” said 35-year-old Yazar Tun, as he held one of his three children outside the prison.
He said he served around eight months of a year-long sentence for loitering.
Prominent model and former doctor Nang Mwe San was also among those released.
She was arrested in 2022 on a charge of “harming culture and dignity” for posting allegedly explicit videos online.
Myanmar’s junta opened voting in a phased month-long election a week ago, with its leaders pledging the poll would bring democracy and national reconciliation.
However, rights advocates and Western diplomats have condemned it as a sham and an effort to rebrand martial rule.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has a decisive lead in the first phase, winning 90% of the lower house seats announced so far, according to official results published in state media on Saturday and Sunday.
Many analysts describe the USDP as a civilian proxy of the military.
Two more phases of voting are scheduled for January 11 and 25.
The massively popular but dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) of Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots, and she has been jailed since the coup.
The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after the NLD defeated the USDP by a landslide.
The military and USDP then alleged massive voter fraud, claims that international monitors say were unfounded.
The junta has said turnout in the first phase last week exceeded 50% of eligible voters, below the 2020 participation rate of around 70%.
Myanmar frequently grants amnesty to thousands of prisoners to commemorate holidays or Buddhist festivals.
A key aide to Suu Kyi was among hundreds of prisoners freed in a pre-election amnesty in November.
The junta said that month it was dropping sentences for more than 3,000 prisoners, after they were prosecuted under post-coup legislation restricting free speech.
