YANGON (AFP) — Hundreds of prisoners walked free in Myanmar on Sunday after the junta announced annual independence day pardons, just a week after the start of an election that international monitors have denounced as sham.

The military grabbed power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war, pitting pro-democracy rebels against junta forces, with thousands of activists since arrested.

A dozen buses full of released prisoners exited Yangon’s Insein prison on Sunday morning, with some waving to crowds of well-wishers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists saw.

Family members outside the prison held up signs with the names of their jailed loved ones, unsure if they would be among those freed.

One man said he was hoping to see his father, who was jailed for “doing politics.”

“His sentence is about to end. I hope he will be released as soon as possible,” said the man, who declined to be named due to security concerns.

In total, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pardoned 6,134 imprisoned Myanmar nationals, the National Defense and Security Council said, adding 52 foreign prisoners would also be released and deported.

The yearly prisoner amnesty that the junta said was “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds” was announced as the country marks 78 years of independence from British colonial rule.

Several freed men and women embraced relatives in tears outside Insein, which is notorious for alleged brutal rights abuses.

Some who spoke to AFP said they had been arrested for drugs, theft and other non-political crimes.