Phyo Zeya Thaw, photographed two years ago in Parliament. /
The Army argues that they committed “brutal and inhumane acts of terror”
The military junta of Myanmar, the former Burma, has executed four opponents and democracy activists, including a former deputy from former leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, reviving a practice that the country had abandoned for decades, according to the state press has reported.
The inmates, who also included another prominent democracy activist, were executed for leading “brutal and inhumane acts of terror,” the state-run ‘Global New Light of Myanmar’ newspaper reported. The newspaper added that the executions were carried out “under prison procedure”, without detailing when or how they died.
The military junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after taking power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution in decades.
Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former MP for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was arrested in November and sentenced to death in January for violating the anti-terrorism law.
Kyaw Min Yu, a prominent democracy activist, received the same sentence from the military court.
The other two were sentenced to death for the murder of a woman they said was a junta informer in Rangoon.
international reviews
The junta was heavily criticized by international powers when it announced its intention to carry out the executions last month. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the decision, calling it a “flagrant violation of a person’s right to life, liberty and security.”
The ruling army continues with a bloody repression against its opponents, with more than 2,000 civilians killed and more than 15,000 detained since the coup, according to a local NGO.
He is also facing accusations of genocide against the Rohingya. In 2017, more than 740,000 members of this Muslim minority took refuge in makeshift camps in Bangladesh to flee abuses by the military.
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