Michelle Bachelet condemns the executions in Myanmar against four defenders of democracy

On Sunday, Myanmar’s official media reported that the military had executed four people, including former National League for Democracy MP Phyo Zeya Thaw and democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu. Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw were the other two men executed.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly condemned these executions, carried out in defiance of repeated calls by the United Nations and the international community that the death sentences not be carried out.

Michelle Bachelet expressed great dismay at the deaths: “This cruel and regressive step is an extension of the current repressive campaign by the military against its own people. These executions, the first in Myanmar in decades, are cruel violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of a person and the guarantees of a fair trial. For the military to expand their slaughter will only deepen the crisis they themselves have created,” she warned.

Likewise, Bachelet called for the immediate release of all political prisoners and other people arbitrarily detained, and urged the country to reinstate its de facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a step towards the final abolition of that punishment.

Condemnation of the rapporteur for Myanmar

For his part, the UN rapporteur* for Myanmar has also called for a forceful international response after the executions of the four defenders of democracy by the military junta. Thomas Andrews declared himself “outraged and devastated”.

The four executed men were found guilty of helping carry out “terrorist acts” against the army that seized power in a coup last year and unleashed a bloody crackdown on opponents. The convictions came in closed-door trials in January and April.

Violation of human rights

The executions were carried out despite worldwide calls for clemency.including those of various UN human rights experts and Cambodia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Andrews condemned the decision to carry out the executions when they were announced in June. In a statement he said the men were “tried, convicted and sentenced… without the right of appeal and reportedly without legal representation, in violation of international human rights law.”

The rapporteur called for “strong action” from UN member states against “widespread and systematic killings of protesters, indiscriminate attacks on entire villages and now the execution of opposition leaders”.

“The status quo of international inaction must be firmly rejected,” he added.

In June, the General secretary of the UN, Antonio Guterres, also called for the accusations “against those detained convicted for activities related to the exercise of their freedoms and fundamental rightsand that all political prisoners in Myanmar be immediately released”.

Prominent activists

Among those executed is Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. Also known as Maung Kyaw, he was convicted in January by a military court of charges of possession of explosives, attacks and financing of terrorism.

Phyo Zeya Thaw was arrested last November for shooting at security personnel, state media said at the time. He was also accused of being a key figure in a network that carried out what the military described as terrorist attacks in Yangon, the country’s largest city.

Democratic activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, was also executed for violating the anti-terror law. He was one of the leaders of the Student Group of the Generation of ’88, veterans of a failed popular uprising in 1988 against the military government.

He had already spent more than a dozen years behind bars for political activism before his arrest in Yangon last October. He had been placed on a wanted list for social media posts allegedly inciting unrest, and state media said he was accused of terrorist acts, including landmine attacks, and leading a group called Operation Light. de Luna to carry out urban guerrilla attacks.

The other two, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, were found guilty of torturing and killing a woman in March 2021, who they allegedly believed to be a military informer.

First use of capital punishment

It is generally believed that the last judicial execution to take place in Myanmar was that of another political offender, student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, in 1976, under a previous military government led by dictator Ne Win.

In 2014, the sentences of prisoners on death row were commuted to life in prison, but several dozen convicts received death sentences between then and last year’s coup.

*The UN special rapporteurs are part of the Special Procedures of Human Rights Council. The Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name for the independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms established by the Council to deal with specific situations in countries or thematic issues around the world. the world. The experts of the Special Procedures work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and act in their individual capacity.