The Myanmar junta was urged on Friday by the UN Human Rights Office to free the thousands of detainees still held captive for defying military authority.
"We continued to receive reports of people being detained for opposing military rule, many of whom have been subject to torture and ill-treatment," said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement. "Even as news about the amnesty to mark the country's independence day emerged."
Such detentions, Laurence continued, "are not only meant to intimidate the junta's critics but also to silence them."
He emphasised that allowing people to participate in political life freely, fully, and effectively is the way out of Myanmar's crisis, not keeping them away.
To celebrate Myanmar's Independence Day on January 4, the military junta announced on Wednesday that it would release 7,012 prisoners from prisons all throughout the country.
In February 2021, the Tatmadaw, or Burmese military, conducted a coup that resulted in significant civil turmoil. Despite UN warnings that the country had into a civil war, the junta forcefully put down protests.
Since the military took over, at least 2,316 people have died in Myanmar, including 188 children, according to the UN rights office.
Thousands of others were imprisoned, including the National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been jailed for 33 years.
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