Myanmar Releases 114 Detainees

On Friday, Myanmar's State Administration Council released 114 ethnic armed organization detainees.

In honor of the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), the council urged signatories to strengthen the agreement and asked non-signatories to join the accord.

In September, the European Union (EU) said that it “shares the deep concern expressed” in the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar’s report to the UN Human Rights Council regarding systemic human rights breaches in the country.

“We reiterate our strong support to the mandate of the Mechanism to collect evidence of serious international crimes and violations of international law and facilitate criminal proceedings in order to ensure accountability of those responsible,” the EU said in a statement at the UN Human Rights Council’s 48th session in Geneva.

“We call on Myanmar to cooperate with the mandate of the IIMM and to provide meaningful and unhindered access to relevant sources of information and locations,” said the 27-member bloc.

“Since the military coup on February 1, the human rights, humanitarian, and security situations have rapidly deteriorated as a result of the military forces’ indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population, endangering the lives of thousands of people in Myanmar,” the report stated.

The EU strongly denounced the use of force against peaceful protesters and civilians, as well as widespread arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, and demanded that the country’s armed forces stop using violence against civilians immediately.

The country has been witnessing a wave of unrest since the military ousted the government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power through a February 1 coup, sparking a nationwide uprising in which protesters called for the restoration of democracy.

U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the bloody crackdown on protesters in Myanmar, as security forces killed more than 100 people, including at least seven children.

“It’s absolutely outrageous and based on the reporting I’ve gotten, an awful lot of people have been killed totally unnecessarily,” US President Joe Biden told reporters.

He also added that US is currently working on imposing more sanctions against Myanmar Junta.