Myanmar executes democracy activists in first use of capital punishment for decades
- A former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and another prominent activist were among the four executed prisoners
- The last judicial executions in Myanmar are believed to have been carried out in the 1980s. The junta has been heavily criticised for the executions
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Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the four men had been accused of helping militias 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 military junta, condemned the executions and called for international action against the generals.
“Extremely saddened … condemn the junta’s cruelty with strongest terms,” the NUG president’s office spokesman Kyaw Zaw said via text message. “The global community must punish their cruelty.”
Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) who was arrested in November, was among those executed.
Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu – better known as “Jimmy” – was also put to death, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
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Two other men, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, had been sentenced to death for killing a woman they alleged was an informer for the junta in Yangon.
“I am outraged and devastated at the news of the junta’s execution of Myanmar patriots and champions of human rights and democracy,” Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a statement.
“My heart goes out to their families, friends and loved ones and indeed all the people in Myanmar who are victims of the junta’s escalating atrocities … These depraved acts must be a turning point for the international community.”
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres had condemned the junta’s decision to carry out the executions after it was announced last month, calling it “a blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
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Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the executions went against Tokyo’s repeated urging for a peaceful resolution and release of detainees, and 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.
Phyo Zeya Thaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.
A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.
He was elected to parliament representing Suu Kyi’s NLD in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule.
The country’s military alleged voter fraud during elections in 2020 – which the NLD won by a landslide – as justification for its coup on February 1 last year.
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Suu Kyi has been detained since then and faces a slew of charges in a junta court that could see her face a prison sentence of more than 150 years.
Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising against the country’s previous military regime, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.
Executions in Myanmar have previously been carried out by hanging.
The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group, said the last judicial executions in Myanmar took place in the late 1980s.
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“Not even the previous military regime, which ruled between 1988 and 2011, dared to carry out the death penalty against political prisoners,” said Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, the chair of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights.
“This means yet another increase in the junta’s brutality, which comes from a sense of impunity largely fostered by the failure of the global community to do anything effective to prevent it from committing further atrocities.”
Myanmar has been in chaos since last year’s coup, with conflict spreading across the country after the army crushed mostly peaceful protests in cities.
The AAPP says more than 2,100 people have been killed by the security forces since the coup, a figure the junta says is exaggerated.
This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one
The true picture of the violence has become hard to assess since clashes have spread to more remote areas where ethnic minority insurgent groups are also fighting the military.
The latest executions close off any chance of ending the unrest in the country, said Myanmar analyst Richard Horsey, of the International Crisis group.
“Any possibility of dialogue to end the crisis created by the coup has now been removed,” Horsey said. “This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one. It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
