Carnage Follows Amnesty in Myanmar: Four Prisoners Shot Dead, 12 Injured
Four inmates were shot dead and 12 more were injured after security forces opened fire on prisoners protesting inside Kachin State’s Myitkyina Prison on Thursday, Kachin media reported.
Prisoners were protesting the junta’s amnesty the day, which saw 3,303 prisoners released nationwide to mark Myanmar’s traditional New Year, before they were shot. Only 101 of those who received conditional amnesties on Wednesday were political prisoners.
Staff at Myitkyina Prison first used sling shots to fire projectiles at the prisoners protesting for fairness in the amnesty. The prisoners responded by tossing stones at prison staff, according to Kachin media reports that cited sources closed to the Myitkyina prison department.
Later, prison security forces fired bullets at the protesters, killing four prisoners and injuring 12 more, the Kachin News Group reported.
Prison staff transported the dead and wounded to a hospital on Thursday evening, reports said.
Prisoners are demanding that prison officials take action against security personnel who opened fire on them, for their rights to be protected and for prison amnesties to be fair, Kachin media reports say.
Prisoners are also demanding that no action be taken against those who were not killed in the crackdown.
On Wednesday, around 40 inmates from Myitkyina Prison were released in the amnesty.
They included former Kachin Baptist Convention president Dr. Hkalam Samson. Samson was, however, taken back into custody by junta troops before dawn on Thursday, He was rearrested along with his wife, an official and member of the Kachin Peace-talk Creation Group, according to sources close to the family.
Samson was arrested at Mandalay International Airport by junta troops in December 2022 while waiting to fly to Thailand for medical treatment. In a closed trial, he was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of unlawful association, state defamation and terrorism.
In late March, at least 17 inmates, mostly political prisoners, were injured during a brutal crackdown on unrest at Pyapon Prison in Ayeyarwady Region’s Pyapon Township, according to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar.
