More executions will force ASEAN rethink on Myanmar ties: Special envoy

Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, speaking in his capacity as special envoy to Myanmar of the 10-member ASEAN, described the executions of Myanmar dissidents as a “setback” to his mediation.

Prak Sokhonn said the nine ASEAN members aside from Myanmar had “agreed to see how things will evolve in the coming weeks and months.” (Reuters)

Efforts by Myanmar’s neighbours to help restore peace and normalcy to the strife-torn Southeast Asian nation have been hindered by the country’s recent executions of four political activists, Cambodia has said.

Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, speaking in his capacity as special envoy to Myanmar of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, warned on Saturday that further executions would force the regional grouping to reconsider how it engages with fellow member Myanmar.

Cambodia is the current chair of the regional grouping, and Myanmar is not welcome to send members of its ruling military government to ASEAN meetings because of its failure to cooperate with a plan agreed upon last year to work toward restoring peace.

ASEAN meeting’s final communique, issued on Friday, included a section criticising Myanmar for its lack of progress in ending violence there, but with weaker language than several countries had hoped for.

On Saturday, Prak Sokhonn  said the nine ASEAN members aside from Myanmar had “agreed to see how things will evolve in the coming weeks and months.”

He said “if more executions are conducted, then things will have to be reconsidered,” which suggested that ASEAN is prepared to downgrade its engagement with Myanmar’s military government.

Prak Sokhonn said progress has been made on providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar, but not on the other main points in ASEAN’s plan: stopping the violence and opening up a political dialogue among all the country’s contending parties.

“The only will I see now is to continue to fight,” he said. “Why? Because of the lack of trust and the execution of the activists, whether it is legal or illegal.”

“And without this trust, the fight will continue and the political process will never start because no one will come if they fear for their life,” he said.

Prak Sokhonn declined to say whether he had been in contact with the opposition group, but declared that he was free as special envoy to engage with anyone outside Myanmar.

ASEAN has been criticised by some of its own members as well as other countries for doing too little to pressure Myanmar to implement the five-point consensus.

READ MORE: UN Security Council condemns Myanmar executions in rare consensus

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Myanmar hits out at ASEAN

Myanmar’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement on Friday, saying it objected to a reference in the ASEAN joint statement to a “lack of progress” in implementing the five-point consensus because “it neglects Myanmar’s efforts on its implementation.”

It also said that the four men recently executed were not punished because they were political activists but because they were “found guilty of masterminding, inciting, supporting, arming and committing terrorist activities which caused tremendous loss of innocent lives.”

The opposition forces in Myanmar operate as an underground alternative administration, the National Unity Government, and its affiliated armed wing, the People’s Defence Force.

Myanmar’s military government has branded the groups as “terrorists” and even declared contact with them to be illegal.

“If ASEAN member states and external partners genuinely wish to help Myanmar in restoring normalcy, they should not encourage engaging with the terrorist groups such as NUG and PDF and should avoid any actions that could encourage terrorism,” said Friday’s statement from Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry.

READ MORE: Who were the four activists put to death by Myanmar’s military rulers?

Source: AP

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Myanmar extends state of emergency for six months

Fast News

The junta first declared a state of emergency after seizing power from the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February last year.

Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021. (Reuters)

Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing has received the approval of the national defence and security council to extend his rule under a state of emergency for a further six months, state media reported on Monday.

"The members unanimously supported the proposal to extend the period of the declared state of emergency for another six months under Section 425 of the Constitution," the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

"In our country, we must continue to strengthen the 'genuine and disciplined multi-party democratic system' which is the desire of the people," the paper cited Min Aung Hlaing as saying.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the coup, with conflict spreading across the Southeast Asian country after the army crushed mostly peaceful protests in cities.

The junta said it had taken power because of voting fraud in a November 2020 general election that was easily won by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

Election monitoring groups found no evidence of mass fraud.

The military has pledged to hold new elections in August 2023 though the timetable has already slipped and opponents do not believe the planned elections will be free and fair. 

Source: Reuters

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Myanmar junta executes leading democracy activists Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zayar Thaw

Veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, and former National League for Democracy lawmaker Phyo Zayar Thaw were executed, along with Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported, without giving a date.

Their deaths mark the first judicial executions in the country in decades, and human rights groups fear more will follow. According to Human Rights Watch, 114 people have been sentenced to death in Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021.

Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zayar Thaw were accused by the military of being "involved in terrorist acts such as explosion attacks, killing of civilians as informants," junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun previously told CNN. They were sentenced to death in January 2022, and last month Zaw Min Tun confirmed their appeals had been denied.

Civilian cases have been tried in military courts with proceedings closed to the public since the military seized power last year, ousting the elected government and reversing almost a decade of tentative democratic reforms.

Rights groups say these secretive military tribunals deny the chance to a fair trial and are designed for speedy -- and almost certain -- convictions, regardless of evidence.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a statement Monday he was "outraged and devastated" by the executions.

"My heart goes out to their families, friends and loved ones and indeed all the people of Myanmar who are victims of the junta's escalating atrocities," he said. "These individuals were tried, convicted, and sentenced by a military tribunal without the right of appeal and reportedly without legal counsel, in violation of international human rights law."

Acting Asia director for Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, called the executions "an act of utter cruelty," that "followed grossly unjust and politically motivated military trials."

"This horrific news was compounded by the junta's failure to notify the men's families, who learned about the executions through the junta's media reports," Pearson said in a statement Monday.

A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier the UN was "deeply troubled" by the decision to execute the men, calling it a "blatant violation of the right to life, liberty and security of person," referring to an article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Amnesty International said it has recorded an "alarming" increase in the number of death sentences in the country since the takeover that it said were designed to "sow fear."

"The death sentence has become one of many appalling ways the Myanmar military is attempting to sow fear among anyone who opposes its rule, and would add to the grave human rights violations, including lethal violence targeted at peaceful protesters and other civilians," the organization said on Twitter in June.

An Amnesty report from 2021 said the last judicial execution in Myanmar known to have taken place was in 1988. There have been numerous death sentences in the country since, but they've usually been "commuted through mass pardons," Amnesty said.

CNN has been unable to independently verify when the last execution by the state was carried out in Myanmar.

Prominent activists

Phyo Zayar Thaw, 41, was formerly a lawmaker in Myanmar's lower house of parliament for the then-ruling National League for Democracy -- the party of ousted state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Before becoming a politician, Phyo Zayar Thaw was a popular hip hop artist and a founding member of pro-democracy youth organization Generation Wave. He was imprisoned in 2008 by the previous military regime for his activism.

In November 2021, Phyo Zayar Thaw was arrested during a raid on an apartment complex in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon. He was accused of planning attacks on junta targets and charged under the Counterterrorism Law and the Public Property Protection Act, according to local media.

Ko Jimmy became a prominent student activist in Myanmar during the mass popular uprising against the then-military regime in 1988. He spent about 15 years behind bars for his activism and involvement in the 8888 demonstrations and 2007 Saffron Revolution.

According to local media, Ko Jimmy was detained in October 2021, accused of organizing guerrilla attacks on junta targets and charged with treason and terrorism offenses. He was also wanted by the regime for allegedly inciting unrest because of social media posts criticizing the coup.

Since seizing power, the military junta led by Min Aung Hlaing has embarked on a bloody crackdown against any opposition to its rule. Nearly 15,000 people have been arrested and more than 2,000 killed by military forces in that time, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military has been accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes by the US, UN and other international bodies as it attempts to assert control over the people, who continue to wage a mass resistance campaign.

"The junta's barbarity and callous disregard for human life aims to chill the anti-coup protest movement," Human Rights Watch's Pearson said Monday.

"European Union member states, the United States, and other governments should show the junta that there will be a reckoning for its crimes."

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Myanmar junta executes four pro-democracy activists

Military regime executes four prisoners including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's party and a prominent activist, state media report, in the country's first use of capital punishment in decades.

Kyaw Min Yu (L) and Phyo Zeya Thaw were executed along with two others for leading "brutal and inhumane terror acts". (AFP file)

Myanmar's junta has executed four prisoners including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, state media said, in the country's first use of capital punishment in decades.

The four, who included another prominent democracy activist, were executed for leading "brutal and inhumane terror acts", the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on Monday.

The paper said the executions were carried out "under the prison's procedure" without saying when or how the four men were killed.

The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution for decades.

READ MORE: Myanmar junta accused of laying landmines around rebel villages

International condemnation

Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death in January for offences under anti-terrorism laws.

Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu –– better known as "Jimmy" –– received the same sentence from the military tribunal.

The two other men and sentenced to death for killing a woman they alleged was an informer for the junta in Yangon.

The junta was heavily criticised by international powers when they announced last month their intention to carry out the executions.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the junta's decision, calling it "a blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person".

READ MORE: Myanmar's Suu Kyi moved to solitary confinement in prison

Junta's crackdown

Thaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.

A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.

He was elected to parliament representing Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule.

The country's military alleged voter fraud during elections in 2020 –– which the NLD won by a landslide –– as justification for its coup on February 1 last year.

Suu Kyi has been detained since then and faces a slew of charges in a junta court that could see her face a prison sentence of more than 150 years.

Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar's 1988 student uprising against the country's previous military regime, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.

READ MORE: Myanmar relies on apartheid, imprisonment to survive: HRW

Source: AFP

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