Myanmar junta pardons more than 2,000 political prisoners

YANGON: Myanmar´s junta pardoned more than 2,000 political prisoners to mark a Buddhist holiday on Wednesday, triggering tearful reunions outside jails but also demands that the many others behind bars be released.

The military has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its February 2021 putsch that ended Myanmar´s brief democratic experiment and plunged the country into turmoil. Protesters and journalists were among the 2,153 people freed, AFP reporters said, a tiny fraction of those targeted in the military´s brutal and sweeping crackdown on dissent. “There are many prisoners... left in the prison,” said Phoe Thar, a student who was jailed in December 2021 for taking part in a flash mob demonstration. “I want to ask people to stay strong for those prisoners,” he told AFP outside Yangon´s Insein prison.