<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Myanmar reduced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's 33-year prison sentence by six years in a partial pardon on Tuesday, as the junta struggles to quell bloody resistance to its rule.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The country has been ravaged by violence in the two years since Suu Kyi was deposed in a coup and hit with 19 criminal cases ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 rules.</div><div><br></div><div>There have been concerns for the 78-year-old Nobel laureate's health and the junta moved her from prison to a government building last week.</div><div>"Six years imprisonment will be reduced," junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters after it was announced she had been pardoned in five cases.</div><div><br></div><div>Suu Kyi still faces 14 cases despite the pardon. Rights groups have condemned the legal battle against her as a sham designed to remove a popular democratic leader from the public eye.</div><div><br></div><div>Former Myanmar president Win Myint, who was also removed in the 2021 coup, was granted a four-year reduction in relation to two cases, the junta spokesman said.</div><div><br></div><div>- 'Cruel games' -</div><div><br></div><div>"She couldn't be freed completely, although some sentences against her were pardoned. She still has to face 14 cases. Only five cases out of 19 were pardoned," a legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.</div><div><br></div><div>Tuesday's announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent, including 125 foreigners who are to be released and pardoned.</div><div><br></div><div>An unspecified number of prisoners facing the death penalty also had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment, the announcement said.</div><div><br></div><div>David Mathieson, an independent analyst on Myanmar, said the partial pardon was a "cynical ploy to tell the world that there might be some kind of political resolution coming. When we know that there is not".</div><div><br></div><div>"I think they are just playing cruel games with a political prisoner," Mathieson told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>"All the charges against her are absurd and shaving six years off 33 isn't mercy."</div><div><br></div><div>- Still popular -</div><div><br></div><div>Suu Kyi was detained on the night of the coup in February 2021 and has only been seen once since -- in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in the military-built capital Naypyidaw.</div><div><br></div><div>She was required to attend almost daily hearings in the junta court to hear cases against her ranging from corruption to possession of illegal walkie-talkies and flouting coronavirus restrictions.</div><div><br></div><div>In July, Thailand's foreign minister met Suu Kyi, the first known meeting with a foreign envoy since she was detained, although details of what they discussed are not known.</div><div><br></div><div>She remains popular in Myanmar, even after her international image was tainted by a power-sharing deal with the generals and her failure to speak up for the persecuted Rohingya minority.</div><div><br></div><div>But many of those fighting for democracy since the coup have abandoned her principle of non-violence and taken up arms to try and permanently root out military dominance of Myanmar's politics and economy.</div><div><br></div><div>As a result, much of the Southeast Asian country is in armed conflict, with thousands killed since the coup, more than a million displaced according to the United Nations, and the army struggling to assert its dominance.</div><div><br></div><div>According to a local monitoring group, more than 3,800 people have been killed since the coup, a figure the junta puts at 5,000.</div><div><br></div><div>With unrest raging, the junta announced on Monday it would extend a state of emergency by six months, which is likely to delay elections promised for August.</div><div><br></div><div>The military cited alleged widespread voter fraud during elections in November 2020 as a reason for its coup, which sparked huge protests and a bloody crackdown.</div><div><br></div><div>Those polls were won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, with international observers saying at the time the polls were largely free and fair.</div><div><br></div><div>Myanmar regularly grants amnesties to thousands of prisoners to commemorate holidays or special Buddhist dates.</div><div><br></div><div>The junta released some 23,000 prisoners after the 2021 coup in a move that human rights groups feared at the time was aimed at freeing up space for military opponents.</div><div><br></div><div>More than 24,000 people have been arrested since the military booted Suu Kyi's government from power, according to a local monitoring group.</div><div><br></div><div>Almost 20,000 remain behind bars, according to the latest figures. - AFP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>