Crowds cheer as Myanmar releases thousands of prisoners to mark Independence Day

Released prisoners are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they left Insein Prison on Saturday (4 January) in Yangon, Myanmar.

Myanmar’s military government has released more than 6,000 prisoners and has reduced other inmates’ sentences as part of a mass amnesty marking the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain.

They included just a small proportion of hundreds of political detainees jailed for opposing army rule since the military seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

That takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.

In the country’s largest city, Yangon, buses took prisoners out of Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since the morning for the announced releases.

Mass prisoner releases are common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar.