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In the midst of various denunciations of the use of torture, rape, massacre and population displacement and growing international pressure, the Burmese military junta nonetheless defends the legality of its decision to carry out the execution of four convicted to dead. The UN denounces that the executions of opponents may constitute a war crime or crime against humanity.
From the RFI correspondent in Rangoon, Ramón Vidales
In recent days, the Radio Free Asia agency revealed the contents of the cell phone of a soldier belonging to the Military Operations Command No. 4 in Rangoon, operating in the northern region of Sagain, one of the hardest hit by military actions against the population. civil. The Revealed images and videos confirm several of the allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by the troops of the Junta that governs the country since the February 2021 coup.
The complaints report acts such as the looting and destruction of residents’ homes, torture, rape, mass executions, burning of corpses and even the destruction of entire villages. Cell phone files confirm, at least, the performance of various acts of torture and executions, but also confessions of cases of extreme cruelty committed during military raids.
“I had to cut off his head, brother,” says one of the soldiers to other comrades-in-arms, for events that probably occurred between the months of April and May of this year. The Board has promised to rule once it does its “internal investigation” of the first results.
After the coup of February 1, 2021, around 2,000 people have been assassinated by the military junta, of which more than 680 inhabit the Sagain region. For reasons directly linked to the coup, another 14,100 people have been arrested, including 11,000 are still detainedaccording to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners.
Added to this are the acts of intimidation to which people who are still part of the Civil Disobedience Movement declared during the month of February 2021 are permanently subjected and which has led to the indefinite strike to a large number of workers health, education, officials from various state institutions and even police and military.
This has made them targets of repressive action, resulting for example in the murder of at least 12 health workers and the arrest of at least 86 more. To this are added the daily controls to which the inhabitants are subjected of large cities with the implementation of a measure eliminated during the democratic period: night home visits.
The extrajudicial executions and attacks mainly against the civilian population, have become Burmese Army regular practice. However, with the recent announcement of the execution of four high-profile political leaders and activists, the murder is finally raised to legal form of social control in the Burma of the military junta.
Indeed, on June 3, the Junta’s spokesman revealed that four men sentenced to death for allegedly participating in the armed resistance would be executed, including Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, high-level leader of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu’s party. Kyi, and well-known pro-democracy activist Ko Jimmy. The names of Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw also appear, but that RFI has not been able to confirm.
In addition to them, there are at the moment more than 70 people on death row, including 2 under 18. Added to this is the fact that Burmese justice today does not provide any guarantee of fair defense, since the military controls all stages of the judicial process, from investigation to execution of sentences.
Political prisoners are often tortured, some to death, or forced to forced labor in grueling 12-hour days. They are also demanded money to qualify for individual cells or are forced to sleep in overcrowded cells, according to the Irrawaddy newspaper.
The death penalty was profusely used against political opponents during the dictatorship and until the end of the 1980s. And despite the fact that the measure was never modified during the democratic period, only until now has it returned as a recurring sentence and again against opponents of the Board. Despite mounting international pressure, the Board has defended the “legality” of the measure and the sovereign nature of its institutions, even leading the Cambodian delegate to ASEAN, a traditionally cautious group regarding the political affairs of its partners, to request the “reconsideration” of said executions.
Meanwhile, the pressure of the opposition is also growing with the increase in armed actions but also in small peaceful demonstrations in the main cities. Some of them, in commemoration of the 77 years of Aung San Suu Kyi.
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