They were found guilty of helping to carry out “inhuman acts of terrorism,” it said. These are the first death sentences to be carried out in the Southeast Asian crisis country since 1990.
The acting Asia director of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, spoke of “an act of extreme cruelty”. With this barbarism, the junta aims to silence the anti-coup protest movement. European Union member states, the United States and other governments should immediately let the junta know “that there are consequences for the atrocities it has committed.”
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had appealed in vain not to carry out the death sentences. The human rights expert in the ASEAN parliament, the Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, now expects an increase in state violence in Myanmar. He accused the international community of not doing anything effective to prevent the military government from further “atrocities”.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi assumed that the country would continue to isolate itself internationally. The Naypyidaw government dismissed the foreign criticism as meddling and ruthless. China stressed that the government in Beijing adheres to the principle of non-interference. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs only said that all parties in Myanmar should work to resolve the conflict while respecting the constitution.
“The shocking speed with which the death sentences were carried out and the callousness with which they were carried out is compounded by the fact that the families – like all of us – learned of the deaths of their loved ones following the fact and only through the media,” Manny Maung, Myanmar expert at Human Rights Watch, told the German Press Agency. He called on the international community to take urgent action once morest the military government.
As early as June, following those convicted lost their appeals, UN experts warned: “These death sentences, handed down by an illegitimate court of an illegitimate junta, are a heinous attempt to scare the people of Myanmar.” A source close to the families told the German Press Agency that the men were hanged early Sunday morning. Amnesty International denounced a “severe escalation of state repression”. The junta’s courts have already sentenced 100 people to death. However, no death sentences had been carried out in the Southeast Asian country for decades.
The generals staged a coup in February 2021 and ousted the de facto Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi (77). Since then, the country has descended into chaos and violence.
Phyo Zeya Thaw and Kyaw Min Yu were allowed to see their families once more via zoom a few days ago, according to local media and sources close to the families. “We hoped the sentences would not be carried out, it’s just terrible,” said a woman close to Kyaw Min Yu’s family. “The families thought they were safe for a while.”
The activist had been fighting for more democratic rights since 1988 and had been in prison for more than 20 years in the past. First known as a hip-hop singer, Phyo Zeya Thaw later went into politics and became a close ally of Suu Kyi. There are numerous proceedings once morest the Nobel Peace Prize winner for alleged crimes. A month ago she was transferred from house arrest to prison.
Under the junta’s provisions of martial law, the death penalty can be imposed for very loosely defined crimes. In practice, virtually any criticism of the military is punishable by death. International Crisis Group (ICG) Myanmar expert Richard Horsey tweeted that the executions were “a monstrous act that will create political shock waves, now and for a long time to come.”
The BBC reported last month, without citing any sources, that Aung San Suu Kyi had been transferred from prison to an undisclosed location. Repeated mass rallies, strikes and acts of civil disobedience were violently repressed by the military government. According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 1,756 opponents of the regime were killed and at least 13,282 arrested.
