‘Security is fast deteriorating’ - Eswatini activists welcome SADC move

King Mswati III.

JINTY JACKSON/Gally Images

• Pro-democracy activists challenge SADC to bring King Mswati III to the negotiation table with a clear framework, timelines and set targets.
• They also want reports by previous envoys dispatched to Eswatini through SADC's troika to be made public.
• Opposition leader accuses SADC of being a group of "elite" leaders covering up for King Mswati III and vows people of Eswatini will take charge of their destiny.

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Pro-democracy activists from Eswatini welcomed the Southern African Development Community (SADC) resolution to send a fact-finding mission to Africa's last absolute monarchy.

They noted, however, that it was not the first fact-finding mission to be sent to Eswatini, with those before not yielding much progress.

Thulani Maseko, a prominent human rights lawyer from Eswatini, and Mlungisi Makhanya, leader of the People’s United Democratic Movement, the largest opposition party in the country spoke to News24.

Maseko said: "While we welcome the developments, we are concerned about what we see as a lack of decisiveness when it comes to the Eswatini question.

"The question is, how many fact-finding missions will be conducted before there is a serious commitment to a real meaningful process to resolve the crisis?"

He added that he hoped President Cyril Ramaphosa's framework for dialogue would be consolidated so that King Mswati III commits to it, although in the past, the king had not been so keen on engagement. 

READ | SADC sending 'panel of elders' on fact-finding mission to Eswatini

"We do feel that the king is given leeway to delay the resolution of the impasse while he continues to harass the people in Eswatini and the leaders of the mass democratic movement.

He added:

In our view, the facts speak for themselves for the need to bring the parties to the impasse to the table of dialogue, and SADC long accepted that dialogue is the only possible and meaningful way to address the socio-economic and political crisis facing the country.

He also said that SADC should pin down the king to commit to the creation of a political climate of peace conducive to dialogue, ensuring that all political prisoners are released, exiles return home safely, and all impediments to meaningful dialogue and free political activity are removed.

Another wish from Maseko was for SADC to agree on a framework for the dialogue to start, including timelines, and the adoption of mutually agreed terms of reference.

"We do hope that the fact-finding mission will realise the urgency because the security situation is fast deteriorating," he added.

Makhanya told News24 that while SADC was going to send another fact-finding team led by a panel of elders, it owed the people of Eswatini an update on what happened with past envoys.

"While we in principle welcome the decision by the SADC summit to send the panel of elders on a fact-finding mission anywhere it deems fit, we however strongly feel that SADC owes the people of Swaziland an explanation on how far the previous fact-finding mission went and their subsequent reports," he said.

Three envoys sent by SADC have been to Eswatini in the past.

READ | EXPLAINER: State of emergency in Lesotho

Makhaya feels SADC was playing "marbles" with the Eswatini situation and as things stood, "the country will continue to burn".

While SADC handles the diplomatic side of the crisis, Makhanya said they would not wait but take matters into their own hands.

"We are not waiting for SADC to liberate us, we are liberating ourselves. Our message to our people is very clear: You are on your own and only your efforts will liberate you," he added.

He also branded SADC leaders as "elites" who are "indifferent" about the massacre of innocent people.

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The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

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Burma executes four democratic activists, including ex-lawmaker

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Burma has carried out its first execution of political prisoners in decades following the country’s military takeover in 2021.  

The hanging of former lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu, a democracy activist, and two other political prisoners, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Za, was first announced in the state-run Mirror Daily newspaper.

FILE: Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo)

The executions brought swift condemnation from world leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres whose spokesman, Farhan Haq, decried them as "a further deterioration of the already dire human rights environment in Burma." 

The four men were executed "in accordance with legal procedures" for directing and organizing "violent and inhuman accomplice acts of terrorist killings," the Mirror Daily reported, without specifying when they were hanged.  

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The military government later issued a brief statement about the executions, while the prison where the men had been held and the prison department refused to comment.

The U.S. Embassy in Burma said it mourned the loss of the four men and offered condolences to their families while decrying the decision to execute them.

"We condemn the military regime's execution of pro-democracy leaders and elected officials for exercising their fundamental freedoms," the embassy said.

Anti-coup protesters display a party flag of the National League for Democracy (NLD) during a demonstration in Yangon, Burma, Friday, May 14, 2021.  (AP Photo)

Burma's Foreign Ministry had rejected the wave of criticism that followed its announcement in June, declaring that its judicial system is fair and that Phyo Zeya Thaw and the others were "proven to be masterminds of orchestrating full-scale terrorist attacks against innocent civilians to instill fear and disrupt peace and stability."

"They killed at least 50 people," military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said at a televised news conference last month. He said the decision to hang the prisoners conformed with the rule of law and the purpose was to prevent similar incidents in the future.

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The military's seizure of power from Suu Kyi's elected government triggered peaceful protests that soon escalated to armed resistance and then to widespread fighting that some U.N. experts characterize as a civil war. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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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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