Myanmar junta executes four democracy activists
Last month, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun defended the death penalty, saying it was justified and used in many nations
Myanmar’s military junta has executed four democracy activists accused of helping to carry out “terror acts”, it said on Monday, sparking widespread condemnation of the Southeast Asian nation’s first executions in decades.
Sentenced to death in closeddoor trials in January and April, the four men had been accused of helping insurgents to fight the army that seized power in a coup last year and unleashed a bloody crackdown on its opponents.
Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration outlawed by the ruling junta, condemned the executions and called for international action against the ruling military.
“Extremely saddened... condemn the junta’s cruelty,” Kyaw Zaw, the spokesman of the NUG president’s office, told Reuters in a message. “The global community must punish their cruelty.”
Among those executed were democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hiphop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
Kyaw Min Yu, 53, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a 41-year-old ally of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, lost their appeals against the sentences in June. The two others executed were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw.
“These executions amount to arbitrary deprivation of lives and are another example of Myanmar’s atrocious human rights record,” said Erwin Van Der Borght, regional director of rights group Amnesty International. “The four men were convicted by a military court in highly secretive and deeply unfair trials. The international community must act immediately as more than 100 people are believed to be on death row after being convicted in similar proceedings.”
The men had been held in the colonial-era Insein prison and a person with knowledge of the events said their families visited it last Friday.
State media reported the executions on Monday and junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun later confirmed the sentences to the Voice of Myanmar. Neither gave details of the timing.
Previous executions in Myanmar have been by hanging.
An activist group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), said Myanmar’s last judicial executions were in the late 1980s. Responding to media enquiries on reports of the executions, a junta statement said “it is as stated in the state media”.
International criticism
Last month, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun defended the death penalty, saying it was justified and used in many countries.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), appealed in a letter in June to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing not to carry out the executions, relaying deep concern among Myanmar’s neighbours.
“Not even the previous military regime, which ruled between 1988 and 2011, dared to carry out the death penalty against political prisoners,” said Malaysian member of parliament Charles Santiago, chair of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights.
Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the executions, which go against Japan’s repeated urging for a peaceful resolution as well as its demands to free detainees, would further isolate Myanmar.
The US embassy in Yangon condemned the executions of “pro-democracy leaders and elected officials”.
China’s foreign ministry urged all parties in Myanmar to properly resolve conflicts within its constitutional framework.