YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Hundreds of people jailed for protesting against last month’s coup in Myanmar were released on Wednesday, a rare military-friendly conciliatory gesture aimed at appeasing the protest movement.
Witnesses at Insein Prison in Yangon saw busloads, mostly of young people, looking happy with some three-fingered defiant gestures taken by protesters. State television said a total of 628 were released.
Thein Zaw, a journalist for The Associated Press who was arrested last month while covering a protest against the coup, was also released on Wednesday..
Myanmar security forces have violently repressed protests against a February 1 coup that reversed a decade of progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country and ousted Aung’s elected government San Suu Kyi. The Independent Association for Assistance for Political Prisoners says at least 275 people have died in connection with the crackdown. Thousands have also been arrested and more than 2,000 remain in custody or on pending charges.
Wednesday’s release was an unusual opening for the military, which until now seemed impervious to both internal pressure from protests and external pressure from sanctions. Faced with increasingly brutal crackdowns, protesters on Wednesday attempted a new tactic they dubbed a strike of silence, urging people to stay home and businesses close the day.
The released prisoners appear to be the hundreds of students arrested in early March. A lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of drawing the attention of authorities, said all those released were arrested on March 3. He said only 55 people detained in connection with the protests remained in jail, and all are likely to face charges under a law that carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.
The mass release came on the same day that Thein Zaw was also released. Thein Zaw told the AP that the judge in his case announced during a hearing that all charges against him were dropped because he was doing his job at the time of his arrest.
“I’m looking forward to meeting my family members,” he said. “I’m sorry for some colleagues who are still in prison.”
Meanwhile, online messages urged people to stay home on Wednesday in protest, instead of flooding the streets as they have done in the past, saying silence is “the loudest cry.” The messages explained that the purpose of the strike was to honor the fallen heroes of the movement, allow protesters to reload and contradict the board’s claims that “everything has returned to normal.”
The extent of the strike was difficult to measure, but social media users posted photos of cities and towns showing empty streets of activity, except for some stray dogs. Some protesters came out to release red balloons with leaflets attached.
The new tactic was employed after an extensive onslaught of violence by security forces.
Local media reported that a 7-year-old girl in Mandalay, the second largest city in the country, was one of the latest victims on Tuesday. The Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners included her in the list of deadly victims.
“Khin Myo Chit was shot in the abdomen by a soldier while sitting on his father’s lap inside his home in Aung Pin Le’s room,” the online news service Myanmar Now reported. , citing his sister, Aye Chan San.
The report explained that the shooting occurred when soldiers were raiding houses in his family’s neighborhood. The sister said a soldier shot her father when she denied there were people hiding in her house and beat the girl.
Aye Chan San said soldiers beat his 19-year-old brother with his rifle butts and took him away.