BURMA: International condemnation has grown in the wake of an announcement from Myanmar’s military-led government that it had executed four pro-democracy activists the country’s first known executions in decades.
The United States embassy in Yangon said on Monday prominent activist 53-year-old Kyaw Min Yu and former legislator 41-year-old Phyo Zeya Thaw, as well as protesters Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zar, had been executed for “exercising their fundamental freedoms”.
In a statement, the foreign ministry of Japan, which had for decades maintained close ties with Myanmar that have frayed in recent months, said it “seriously deplores” the executions and warned the act will further isolate the military-led government, which has already faced a raft of sanctions from Western powers since taking control in a February 2021 coup and arresting State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Even China, which has reportedly sought to protect its longtime ally at the United Nations, called on officials to properly resolve conflicts within the country’s constitutional framework, with foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also reiterating Beijing’s longheld principle of non-interference.
For its part, Myanmar’s military has maintained the executed men had helped to carry out “brutal and inhumane terror acts”, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. It did not specify how the four had been killed. The military-led government later confirmed the situation “is as stated in the state media”. Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former legislator from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD)m had been arrested in November and sentenced to death in January for offences under anti-terrorism laws. –Agencies
