Myanmar executes former lawmaker, political prisoners in ​“blatant attempts to extinguish democracy”

Amid a vio­lent crack­down on pro-democ­ra­cy move­ments, Myanmar’s mil­i­tary jun­ta exe­cut­ed four men, includ­ing a promi­nent activist and a former lawmaker. 

As fam­i­ly mem­bers of the polit­i­cal pris­on­er reel from the loss, human rights experts and many in the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty have decried the country’s first judi­cial exe­cu­tions in decades. The U.S. Secretary of State described the exe­cu­tions as ​“bla­tant attempts to extinguish democracy.” 

Phyo Zeya Thaw, one of the men exe­cut­ed, was a for­mer mem­ber of par­lia­ment and a close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment who was also arrest­ed after the mil­i­tary coup. He was also a renowned hip-hop and rap artist who inspired young peo­ple with his music crit­i­cal of the mil­i­tary jun­ta. Phyo Zeya Thaw was arrest­ed in November, accused of lead­ing a net­work of peo­ple who car­ried out what the mil­i­tary described as terrorist attacks. 

Kyaw Min Yu, bet­ter known as Ko Jimmy, was a leader of the 88 Generation Students Group. His group led hun­dreds of thou­sands of pro­tes­tors in a pro-democ­ra­cy upris­ing against mil­i­tary rule in 1988. He was impris­oned for his role in that upris­ing and again for his role in protests in 2007. Ko Jimmy was arrest­ed a third time in October 2021, accused of vio­lat­ing the counterterrorism law. 

The oth­er exe­cut­ed men, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, were con­vict­ed of killing a woman they are said to have believed was a mil­i­tary informer. Both men were report­ed­ly denied access to legal coun­sel when appeal­ing their death sentences. 

The exe­cu­tions were announced by state-con­trolled media, although jour­nal­ists have not been able to con­firm exact­ly when or how these men were exe­cut­ed. Like the legal tri­als, the exe­cu­tions were con­duct­ed behind closed doors. Family mem­bers of the exe­cut­ed men asked for the return of their loved ones’ bod­ies but were denied.

The last judi­cial exe­cu­tion is believed to have been the 1976 hang­ing of stu­dent activist leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, who protest­ed against mil­i­tary rule. The 2022 exe­cu­tions take place amid a larg­er cam­paign of arrests and death sen­tences since the army over­threw the demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment in February 2021. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners esti­mates that 2,114 civil­ians have been arrest­ed and at least 115 peo­ple sen­tenced to death since the army takeover.

Junta offi­cials have said that the men were exe­cut­ed for direct­ing and orga­niz­ing ​“vio­lent and inhu­man accom­plice acts of ter­ror­ist killings,” though this alle­ga­tion is con­test­ed. The National Unity Government, a gov­ern­ment that formed out­side of Myanmar after the mil­i­tary seized pow­er, con­tests the alle­ga­tions that the exe­cut­ed men were involved in vio­lence. ​“Punishing them with death is a way to rule the pub­lic through fear,” Aung Myo Min, human rights min­is­ter for the National Unity Government, told The Associated Press.

“The entire pop­u­la­tion of our coun­try is fac­ing arbi­trary arrests and all kinds of vio­lence and repres­sion,” Nilar Thein, wife of Ko Jimmy, told Radio Free Asia. ​“I would say the exe­cu­tion of four peo­ple, includ­ing my hus­band and Phyo Zeya Thaw, was bla­tant mur­der. … [M]y hus­band Ko Jimmy stood by his com­mit­ment and loy­al­ty to the peo­ple until his last breath. He has writ­ten a good record for him­self and he will nev­er die in our hearts. He will for­ev­er live in our hearts, in the hearts of all the peo­ple, as a hero.”

Human rights experts in the region and inter­na­tion­al­ly stress that these polit­i­cal pris­on­ers and their loved ones live in fear of the mil­i­tary. ​“Everyone is reel­ing,” Manny Maung, a researcher at Human Rights Watch based in Thailand-Myanmar bor­der, told the Washington Post. ​“If [the mil­i­tary] is pre­pared to go ahead with this, it just shows they’re going to oper­ate with total impunity.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the exe­cu­tions as a fur­ther dete­ri­o­ra­tion of human rights in the coun­ty, call­ing ​“for the imme­di­ate release of all arbi­trar­i­ly detained pris­on­ers.” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called the exe­cu­tions a ​“cru­el and regres­sive step” that will only deep­en the cri­sis caused by the mil­i­tary. Thomas Andrews, an inde­pen­dent U.N.-appointed human rights expert, described the men exe­cut­ed as cham­pi­ons of human rights and decen­cy. ​“I am out­raged and dev­as­tat­ed at the news of the junta’s exe­cu­tion of Myanmar patri­ots and cham­pi­ons of human rights and decen­cy,” Andrews said in a state­ment. ​“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.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced the exe­cu­tions and expressed sup­port for the peo­ple wag­ing the oppo­si­tion to mil­i­tary rule. ​“These rep­re­hen­si­ble acts of vio­lence fur­ther exem­pli­fy the regime’s com­plete dis­re­gard for human rights and the rule of law,” Blinken said in a state­ment. ​“The regime’s sham tri­als and these exe­cu­tions are bla­tant attempts to extin­guish democ­ra­cy; these actions will nev­er sup­press the spir­it of the brave peo­ple of [Myanmar].”