Myanmar: Political Prisoners

(asked on 19th April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the reported increase in the number of political prisoners in Myanmar since the military coup on February 1, 2021, what steps her Department is taking to increase the pressure on the Myanmar military junta to release all political prisoners.


Answered by
Amanda Milling Portrait
Amanda Milling
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This question was answered on 27th April 2022

The UK has repeatedly condemned the arbitrary detention and politically motivated sentencing of those who oppose the coup. We are deeply concerned by reports that former National League for Democracy leader, Linn Htut, was arrested on 28 January 2022 on trumped up corruption charges and has received a prison sentence. Some 12,000 people have been detained since the coup, with credible reports of torture and sexual violence. Immediately following the coup, the former Minister for Asia made a statement to the house, which called on the military to release those arbitrarily detained. On 17 February 2021, our former Ambassador raised our strong objections to the arrest and detention of protestors and political figures with the military, in his role as Chair of the Joint Peace Fund. On 8 December 2021, following the sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Win Myint, we secured a UN Security Council Resolution which called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained. In February 2022, to mark a year since the coup, the UK coordinated a joint statement, agreed by 36 countries, which called for the release of all those in arbitrary detention and a return to the democratic process, and we secured a strong UN Security Council Press Statement which called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained.

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