Myanmar s military has announced plans to release more than 5,000 prisoners, days after the junta chief was denied an upcoming regional summit over his failure to commit to de-escalating the country's crisis.
A total of 5,600 people arrested or subject to arrest warrants for taking part in anti-coup protests since the military released power in February would be released, it was announced on state TV on Monday, although it is not clear when they will be freed.
More than 7,300 political prisoners including medics, elected politicians, journalists and protesters are held, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners AAPP Burma, an advocacy group that tracks the arrests.
In cases where the military targets cannot be found, security forces instead abducted their relatives, including children, said the UN special rapporteur for the country, Tom Andrews, last month.
Many immediately rushed to find out if their relatives or friends were going to be released following the announcement. A woman from Yangon, who spoke anonymously, was among those who went to the prison to search for information about her sister, a journalist detained in August.
She said her family had not been able to visit her sister since the arrest. We received a letter which says she is good and healthy. We didn t hear any other news The letter is asking her family to send her a newspaper to read; they tried to pass one to prison staff, but are unsure when she received it.
"We can t expect too much" said she added.
Another woman whose two smaller brothers were released separately, in May and July, announced that she too was trying to find out if they were arrested. Both were in their 20 s, she said. There is no reason to curse the military We even want to thank them. Many of my friends and two brothers are arrested, so there is no reason to thank them. At least 1,178 people have been killed in the military - detained crackdowns, according to AAPP Burma, including 131 people who were killed in detention. There have been widespread reports of torture in prisons.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Asean, which led the international efforts to negotiate, agreed a five-point plan with the military in April to de-escalate the crisis. This included an agreement that Asean would send an envoy to Brunei s second Foreign Minister, Erywan Yusof, to the country to mediate. However he cancelled his trip this week after the military announced that he would not be permitted to meet Aung San Suu Kyi.
The bloc decided to exclude the Chief of junta, Joe Biden, from his upcoming summit who will be attended by Min Aung Hlaing due to the lack of progress. The decision was a major rebuke from Asean, which maintains a non-interference policy and is a rare blow to the junta's hopes of gaining greater legitimacy internationally.
Minn Khant Kyaw Linn, a 23-year-old student activist whose friends were killed during the spring revolution protests this year, said that the international community should not be fooled into believing the military's promises. This army tortured innocent people and arrested them. We demand the international community to take action against this army, he said.
Among the prisoners being held is the American journalist Danny Fenster, who has been in detention since his arrest on 24 May.
AAPP said in a statement that the prisoner release was intended as a distraction for the foreign governments and that it was no coincidence that the announcement came days after Min Aung Hlaing's joining Asean.
The junta will continue to refuse to be transparent about the individual people detained. Prisoners released from 18 Oct. may include some political prisoners but the intention is not to relax repression, AAPP said.
If the junta wanted to make concessions, the State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint and all democratically elected prisoners would be returned unconditionally and the political officials released;