Activist rapper executed by Myanmar’s military junta

A CLOSE ally of Aung San Suu Kyi who made his name as a rapper in Myanmar has been executed as the military junta killed four democracy activists in the first use of capital punishment there in decades.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, founder of the country’s first hip-hop collective, was killed alongside the prominent democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy.

All four were sentenced to death for helping insurgents to fight the army after the country’s generals seized power in February 2021 and viciously cracked down on opponents.

The country’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration formed to resist the coup, immediately condemned the executions and called for international action.

“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.”

Zeya Thaw shot to national fame in 2000 when he co-founded Acid, a hip hop group that challenged the country’s conservative culture. The group was banned and Zeya Thaw was arrested but later released.

Human Rights Watch said the trials of the four accused, conducted behind closed doors, were “grossly unjust and politically motivated”.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 76 political prisoners have been sentenced to death, as well as 41 other dissidents who are on the run.