Myanmar Junta Holding 10,000 Political Prisoners

After nationwide protests erupted, the safety forces responded by taking pictures some protesters, arresting others and raiding the properties of suspected critics. The A.A.P.P. says at the least 1,723 civilians have been killed.

President Biden and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong issued a joint assertion in Washington on Tuesday calling on the Myanmar junta to launch political prisoners, enable humanitarian entry and start restoring democracy.

“The United States and Singapore share deep concerns about the situation in Myanmar and the challenges it poses to regional stability,” the 2 leaders mentioned. “We continue to call for an end to violence against civilians in Myanmar, the release of all political detainees, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and foreign detainees.”

Antony J. Blinken, the United States secretary of state, estimated in December that greater than one million political prisoners are being held in additional than 65 international locations all over the world.

“More individuals are being unjustly detained or convicted in sham trials with each passing day,” he mentioned, citing the case of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 6 years in jail in December and January and faces a dozen extra counts. Mr. Blinken urged international locations detaining political prisoners to free them.

While numbers are troublesome to come back by, North Korea most likely holds probably the most political prisoners of any nation, with estimates of 120,000 or extra. Many are imprisoned in an unlimited community of pressured labor camps that has been expanded beneath its brutal ruler, Kim Jong-un. In Egypt, the place the armed forces commander, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, seized energy in 2013, human rights teams say the regime holds as many as 60,000 political prisoners.

In Southeast Asia, Myanmar has shortly outstripped the dismal data of its autocratic neighbors, together with Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, mentioned Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.