Yangon, Jan 4: Myanmar's State Administration Council on Saturday pardoned approximately 6,000 prisoners to mark the country's 77th Independence Day anniversary, according to the council's orders.

The pardoned prisoners included 5,864 from Myanmar and 180 from other countries, the orders said. The council also reduced some prisoners' sentences, it added.

Last year, more than 9,000 prisoners were granted amnesty on the country's 76th Independence Day anniversary.

It was on January 4, 1948, that Burma (now officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) ended 60 years of colonial rule when it officially declared independence from Britain.

In June 1945, Burmese soldiers fought with the British to expel Japanese invaders from Burma during World War II. By the war’s end, nationalist leader Aung San, whose anti-fascist movement had been prominent in the struggle against Japan, had established a political and military power base from which to negotiate with Great Britain. He took office in the provisional Burmese government that was formed in 1946.

Gen. San’s rule was troubled by conflicts between Burma’s rival ethnic groups, but he proved a unifying force for the nationalist movement. In January 1947, he signed the Panglong agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Burma as a unified state.

In 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first president and U Nu as its first prime minister.

Before the agreement came to fruition, in July 1947, Aung San and six other members of the Cabinet were gunned down. The deaths were mourned throughout the country and for decades after. The assassinations failed to halt the country’s advance toward political autonomy, which officially arrived on January 4, 1948.

“Thousands of Burmans caroused amiably along Rangoon's steamy, tropical waterfront,” wrote Time. “Some still recalled the day in 1885 when Burma's last king, brash Thibaw, sailed into exile and the British took over. Now, British rule was at an end,” Xinhua news agency reported.

The British conquered part of Burma during the Anglo-Burmese war of 1824–26, but they did not establish full control of the region until 1886. For a time, Burma was part of British India, but it became a separate colony in 1937.

--IANS

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