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The United States on Monday condemned the execution of political activists and elected officials in Myanmar and called on the military government to immediately cease the violence.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the Burmese military regime’s heinous execution of pro-democracy activists and elected leaders,” a spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement.
“We call on the regime to immediately cease the violence, release those they have unjustly detained, and allow for a peaceful return to democracy in accordance with the wishes of the people of Burma.”
Myanmar‘s ruling military executed four democracy activists accused of helping to carry out “terror acts,” according to a release from the state media on Monday.
An activist group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), said Myanmar‘s last judicial executions were in the late 1980s and that since the coup 117 people had been sentenced to death.
Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the men had been accused of helping a resistance movement 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 junta, called for international action against the military.
“The global community must punish their cruelty,” Kyaw Zaw, the spokesman of the NUG president’s office, told Reuters in a text message.
Among those executed were democracy campaigner 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 leader Aung San Suu Kyi, lost their appeals against the sentences in June. 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 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.”
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.
Previous executions in Myanmar have been by hanging.
‘Demonstration of strength’
The junta spokesman last month defended the death penalty, saying it was justified and used in many countries.
Myanmar has been in chaos since last year’s coup, with conflict spreading nationwide after the army crushed mostly peaceful protests in cities.
The AAPP says more than 2,100 people have been killed by security forces since the coup. The junta says that figure is exaggerated.
The true picture of violence has been hard to assess as clashes have spread to more remote areas where ethnic minority insurgent groups are also fighting the military.
The executions have shattered hopes of any peace agreement, said the Arakan Army (AA), a major ethnic militia in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State.
Last Friday, the World Court rejected Myanmar‘s objections to a genocide case over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority, paving the way for a full hearing.
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,” Horsey said. “It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation.”
Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters