Myanmar frees former British ambassador in mass amnesty
Myanmar’s military-controlled government has released a former British ambassador, an Australian economic adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a Japanese filmmaker as part of a broad prisoner amnesty.
State-controlled media said the amnesty included 5,774 prisoners and foreigners who were released “for the relationship with other countries and also for humanitarian purposes”.
Australia said economist Sean Turnell left Myanmar on Thursday and had arrived in neighboring Thailand, while a diplomatic source confirmed former British envoy Vicky Bowman had also left the country.
Turnell was arrested a few days after the army seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February last year, ending a decade of tentative democracy.
Bowman, Britain’s ambassador from 2002-2006 who heads a group promoting ethical business in Myanmar, had been jailed for immigration violations.
Myanmar’s state-run MRTV showed footage of the pair as well as Japan’s Toru Kubota, signing exit documents with officials. The United States said its citizen, Kyaw Htay Oo, was released.
Kyaw Htay Oo was detained on terrorism charges, the media has reported. Kubota was last month sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating sedition and communications laws.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia for pressuring the military to free Turnell, who was found guilty of a state secrets violation and sentenced in September to three years in jail.
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“I’ve just spoken to Sean Turnell, who has been released from 650 days of unfair, unjust imprisonment in Myanmar,” Albanese told reporters in Bangkok, where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
“He will travel overnight to Australia to be with his family.”
Speaking in Bangkok, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the release was “one bright spot in what is otherwise an incredibly dark time.”
“Whether this signals anything more broadly about the intentions of the regime, I can’t tell you – too soon to say.”
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), which backs the resistance movement, said it was heartened by the amnesty, but said the world should not be duped.
“These types of hostage tactics by the junta should not fool the international community into believing that the military has changed its colors,” said Htin Linn Aung, a NUG minister, and spokesperson.
Human rights groups have said their detentions, as well as thousands of others, were politically motivated. The junta has denied that.
Zainab Sa’id
