Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been pardoned in a junta amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent, state media reported. The civilian leader has been in detention since a 2021 military coup.
“Chairman of State Administration Council pardons Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced by the relevant courts," state media said. Suu Kyi will be pardoned for five offences. The leader currently is serving a sentence of 33 years for various offences.
She is appealing the convictions for various offences ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption. She denied all of the charges, a Reuters report reads. The Nobel laureate will be pardoned for five charges, and the 14 offences will stay.
Suu Kyi is the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San. She was first put under house arrest in 1989 after huge protests against decades of military rule and was released in 2010. in 2015, she won an election that was held as part of tentative military reforms that were brought to a halt by the 2021 coup.
Former President Win Myint also had his sentence reduced. On Monday, the military junta extended the emergency it imposed on Myanmar when it seized power from an elected government in 2021. this has delayed the elections the army promised when it took over. The state of emergency has been extended for six more months. The military junta said the emergency was extended because it needed time to prepare for the elections.
The announcement amounted to an admission that the army does not exercise enough control to stage the polls and has failed to subdue widespread opposition to military rule, which includes increasingly challenging armed resistance as well as nonviolent protests and civil disobedience, despite the army having a huge advantage in manpower and weapons.
The military said that it had taken over the government because of fraud in the last general election held in November 2020. The coup triggered non-violent protests, which the armed forces suppressed using lethal power, triggering a civil war-like situation.
According to an independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 3,857 people have been killed by the security forces since the coup so far.
The army-enacted 2008 constitution allows the military to rule the country under a state of emergency for one year, with two possible six-month extensions if preparations are not yet completed for new polls, meaning that the time limit expired on January 31 this year.
Suu Kyi's parties and 39 others were in March by the election commission for failing to re-apply under a political party registration law enacted by the military government early this year.
According to the MRTV broadcaster, coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told the military-backed National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) polls could not take place amid continued fighting in the Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Tanintharyi regions as well as Karen, Kayah and Chin states.
“We need for a time to continue our duty for systematic preparation as we shouldn’t hold coming elections in a rush,” he said.
The US condemned the extension of the emergency, stating that extending the state of emergency would plunge Myanmar “deeper into violence and instability”.
“Since overthrowing a democratically elected government two and a half years ago, the military regime has carried out hundreds of air strikes, burned down tens of thousands of homes, and displaced more than 1.6 million people,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told PTI.
--With PTI inputs
