Myanmar's junta has released 3,113 prisoners, including 98 foreigners, to mark the country's traditional New Year, according to a statement from the military government, however members of Australia's Myanmar diaspora community say more needs to be done after a deadly airstrike last week.
The military-led government has jailed thousands of opponents and pro-democracy activists since it seized power in 2021 and brutally put down protests, drawing global condemnation.
Lieutenant General Aung Lin Dwe, a state secretary of the junta, said in a statement the amnesty is a "celebration of Myanmar's New Year to bring joy for the people and address humanitarian concerns".
The move comes just days after the military announced that it carried out an internationally condemned attack against rebel forces in the remote Sagaing area of the country's north-west, killing more than 100 people, including children, though outlets including BBC Burmese and others said the death toll had climbed to at least 170.
Mon Zin is a member of CRPH/NUG, an Australian support group advocating for the rights of people within Myanmar. She said the Australian government hasn't done nearly enough to pressure the junta.
"We're very frustrated with them. It took them two years to impose sanctions on Myanmar, and even that sanction came too little and too late."
In a Sydney demonstration following the air strike, Ms Zin said the organisation called upon the Australian government to impose new sanctions to supplant those which she says are severely lagging those of its allies.
"We want the Australian Government to consistently and continually fine whatever Australian businesses and investments that are flowing into the Myanmar military junta, which are essentially giving them the funds to commit these kinds of atrocities," she said.
According to Ms Zin the current raft of Australian sanctions targeting the junta aren't in-line with other Western powers including the US, UK, and the EU.
"They are very far behind even New Zealand," she said.
The ABC has reached out to DFAT for comment. The department earlier condemned the airstrike and urged the regime to immediately cease violence.
Thousands remain under junta detention
A junta spokesperson did not answer a call from Reuters seeking comment and it was unclear who was included in the new year's amnesty.
Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and figurehead of opposition to military rule, is serving 33 years in prison after a marathon of trials condemned internationally as a sham.
At least 17,460 people remain in detention and 3,240 have been killed by the junta, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an activist group.
The junta periodically grants an amnesty to prisoners, but the numbers this year and in 2022 have been a fraction of the 23,000 released during the same Buddhist holiday in 2021.
Human rights organisations and many world leaders have repeatedly called on the junta to release all political prisoners.
ABC/Reuters
