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Updated June 11th, 2022 at 21:03 IST

UN condemns Myanmar junta's 'vile attempt at instilling fear' by enforcing death sentences

An NLD member, who stood against the former dictator Ne Win’s regime, was handed the death sentence by a military tribunal in January, on charges of treason.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
UN
Image: AP | Image:self
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United Nations experts condemned the Myanmar military’s “vile attempt at instilling fear” amongst the people of Myanmar by enforcing death sentences against four individuals, including two prominent pro-democracy activists. In a statement issued on June 10, UN officials derided the Junta leaders for a spate of death pronouncements and urged leaders to ramp up international pressure against the military regime.

Myanmar's military - the Tatmadaw - has been ruling the Southeast Asian nation after deposing the Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government in a coup in February 2021. The country has been mired in protests and violent crackdowns on protestors since then. 

Reacting to the death sentences of the four pro-democracy activists, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, in a statement, said “The illegitimate military junta is providing the international community with further evidence of its disregard for human rights as it prepares to hang pro-democracy activists.”

'Vile attempt at instilling fear amongst citizens'

These “death sentences, handed down by an illegitimate court of an illegitimate junta, are a vile attempt at instilling fear amongst the people of Myanmar,” the UN OHCHR said and pointed at the growing human rights violations under the military regime for sentencing individuals to death.

A member of Myanmar's National League for Democracy party that led the civilian government before the coup, who stood against the former dictator Ne Win’s regime was handed the death penalty by a military tribunal in January 2022, on charges of treason and terrorism. If it proceeds, the sentences will be the first judicial executions in Myanmar since 1988.

“The junta’s announced decision to execute the activists illustrates how the military seeks to use all apparatuses of the state to persecute those that oppose its attempt to return Myanmar to military authoritarian rule,” the UN OHCHR stated. 

“Without imposing serious costs on the military for its attacks on fundamental rights, we should expect increasing numbers of these death penalty pronouncements from the junta,” UN experts said on Saturday, deriding the stifling of democratic voices in the South Asian nation marred with civil unrest. 

“The international community - chiefly Member States and the Security Council - must demonstrate that these actions will not go unpunished and do more to target the military’s needs for money, weapons and legitimacy,” demanded the UN experts. The agency noted that the world must not lose sight of the fact that these death sentences are being meted out in the context of the military murdering civilians nearly every day in its widespread and systematic attack on the people of Myanmar.

The Tatmadaw has been accused of killing scores of civilians, political crackdowns, and airstrikes against dissident civilians. It has tortured detainees to death, the UN body noted. At least four individuals were tried and convicted in military tribunals and were given no access to legal counsel during their rejected appeals. This stands in violation of international human rights law, the UN OHCHR said. 

“In today’s Myanmar, fair trial and due process guarantees simply do not exist. The junta’s thumb is firmly upon the scales of justice and under these circumstances, imposing and enforcing the death penalty is especially heinous,” the UN experts asserted.

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Published June 11th, 2022 at 21:02 IST

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