Myanmar’s military rulers have pardoned or dropped charges against 8,665 people locked up for opposing army rule as the country prepares for next month’s elections, reports Al Jazeera.
Critics have asserted that the upcoming election will be neither free nor fair because there is no free media and most of the leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s dissolved National League for Democracy party have been arrested.
“It’s wonderful news for the prisoners,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, wrote on X. But “as expected” political prisoners are being used “for public relations purposes by Burmese military to try to build a fake narrative of reform” ahead of the polls.
22,708 political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, remain in detention.