Former Myanmar leader transitions to house arrest following five year detention after coup News
U.S. Institute of Peace, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Former Myanmar leader transitions to house arrest following five year detention after coup

Myanmar state broadcaster MRTV on Thursday announced that former leader Aung San ⁠Suu Kyi has been moved to house arrest after more than five years of detention following the 2021 coup, which ousted her from power.

That same day, in commemoration of a Buddhist holiday, Full Moon Day of Kason, MRTV announced an amnesty for 1,519 prisoners, including 11 foreigners who were deported following their release. Those remaining in prison, including Aun San Suu Kyi, received a reduction of sentence by one-sixth. This reduced Kyi’s sentence from 22 years to 18 years.

In advance of her transfer to house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris, spoke to DVB Multimedia Association, stating that “there [have been] rumors going around that she was going to be moved to house arrest or even potentially freed, but none of that seems to have materialized.” The same day as his statement, MRTV announced Kyi’s transfer.

On April 17, to commemorate the Buddhist New Year, 4,514 prisoners were granted amnesty, including a reported 179 foreign prisoners who were also deported. The additional releases come following the release of more than 10,000 people from prison in March. Most of those released in March had been serving terrorism sentences, including for organizing or participating in a terrorist group.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners keeps statistics on those detained in Myanmar since the 2021 coup. Last Friday, they reported that 22,047 people remain in detention due to their activities during and since the “Spring Revolution,” the initial protest wave against the coup in early 2021. It is unclear how many of those claimed to have been released by the government are people detained due to their participation in political activity since the 2021 coup.

Five years ago, a coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi from power; she has been detained since. Five years after the coup, it is still unclear which actor holds the legally legitimate claim to govern the country. An estimated 89,000 people have lost their lives, and 3.4 million have been displaced since the February 2021 coup.

Myanmar is currently under investigation by the International Court of Justice for accusations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Bank of England granted political independence

On May 6, 1997, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that the Bank of England would be granted political independence for the first time in the three-hundred year history of the Bank. This policy was statutized in the subsequent Bank of England Act of 1998 gave the Bank independent control of British monetary policy effective June 1, 1998. Read the Bank of England Act of 1998.

Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States and prohibiting courts from bestowing US citizenship on Chinese. Connecticut Senator Joseph Hawley spoke out against the Act in these words: Let the proposed statue be read 100 years hence, dug out of the dust of ages and forgotten as it will be except for a line of sneer by some historian, and ask the young man not well read in the history of this country what was the reason for excluding these men and he would not be able to find it in the law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its successors were abolished in 1943 at the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt.