The Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPP), has warned that it has only been able to identify 72 prisoners imprisoned on purely ideological grounds among the nearly 6,000 prisoners amnestied on Tuesday night by the country’s military coup junta, which it accused of «lack of transparency» in disclosing information about the releases.
«Since the November 16 announcement of the release of the 5,774 prisoners, we at the AAPP can only confirm that only 72 political prisoners have been released and we are obliged to be very cautious about verifying a higher number,» according to a statement released Friday by the organization, one of the few associations that has kept a detailed tally of the victims of military repression following the February 2021 coup d’état.
The AAPP recalls, in the face of this «attempt at a show of goodwill», that «tens of thousands of political prisoners» remain imprisoned in the country, including the leadership of the democratically elected Burmese government before the coup, with the State Councilor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi, at the head.
Among those benefiting from the amnesty are the LDN’s Australian economic advisor, Sean Turnell; former British ambassador Vicky Bowman and her husband, Ko Htein Lin; Japanese journalist and documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota; and American botanist Kyaw Htay Oo.
However, AAPP Secretary Tate Naing points out that «many of these political amnesties had already served the prison sentences to which they had been sentenced», not to mention that most of these prisoners «were convicted on baseless charges, tried on random charges, and detained for no apparent reason».
Political prisoners who will remain incarcerated after the amnesty, the AAPP warns, will continue to «endure daily physical and mental torture, while arrests, arson, torture and killings by the military junta will persist throughout the country.»
The AAPP finally recalls that, according to its balance sheet updated as of November 16, there are still more than 13,000 people detained by Burma’s coup military council, whose repressive operations have cost the lives of nearly 2,500 people. «The perpetrators of these arbitrary arrests, torture and killings must be punished, and we strongly urge international actors to take more effective action against the junta regime,» the association reiterated in its statement.
