Myanmar executes four democracy activists, drawing condemnation

YANGON • Myanmar's military junta has executed four democracy activists accused of helping to carry out "terror acts", it said yesterday, sparking widespread condemnation of the South-east Asian nation's first executions in decades.

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 junta, condemned the executions and called for international action against the junta. "Extremely saddened... condemn the junta's cruelty," Mr 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 figure Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop 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 Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, lost their appeals against the sentences last month. 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 Mr 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."

Ms Thazin Nyunt Aung, the wife of Phyo Zeyar Thaw, said by telephone that prison officials had not let the families retrieve the bodies.

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. Only one relative was allowed to speak to the detainees via the Zoom online platform, the source added.

State media reported the executions yesterday and junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun later confirmed the sentences to the Voice of Myanmar. Neither gave details of timing. Previous executions in Myanmar have been by hanging.

An activist group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, said Myanmar's last judicial executions were in the late 1980s and that since the coup, 117 people had been sentenced to death.

The junta spokesman last month defended the death penalty, saying it was justified and used in many countries.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, chair of Asean, appealed in a letter last month to the junta chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, not to carry out the executions, relaying deep concern among Myanmar's neighbours.

Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, the chair of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said: "Not even the previous military regime, which ruled between 1988 and 2011, dared to carry out the death penalty against political prisoners."

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the executions went against Japan'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.

The executions have shattered hopes of any peace agreement, said the Arakan Army, a major ethnic militia in Myanmar's restive Rakhine State.

The latest executions close off any chance of ending unrest in Myanmar, said analyst Richard Horsey, of the International Crisis group.

"This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one," Mr Horsey said. "It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation."

REUTERS