The first executions in Myanmar (formerly Burma) since 1988 have deepened the clash between the military junta and the pro-democracy movement.
The application of the death penalty in this Southeast Asian country, immersed in a social, political and economic crisis, was not only condemned by the international community, but also unleashed the anger of a large part of the population.
Following the announcement of the executions, the shadow Government of National Unity, armed ethnic groups and the National League for Democracy in Myanmar issued an unprecedented joint statement pledging to “fight the regime on all fronts and by all means”. , united and without respite”.
The risk, activists warn,
This Monday, Min Aung Hlaing announced in a televised speech that the state of emergency - initially scheduled until August 2023 - will be extended for another six months due to the "instability" in which the country is plunged.
The military leader has shrugged off responsibility for not achieving the well-being he committed to with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), arguing that the pandemic and violence within the nation have conspired against him.
After the military junta took power last year, Myanmar and the other nine ASEAN states agreed to a five-point pact aimed at ending hostilities and promoting dialogue within the former Burma, a plan not yet has borne fruit, but that officially does not reject.
“Our towns are being randomly attacked and innocent people are dying for no reason.
The armed movement is growing because we see no other way to topple the military junta,” says Me Me Khant, leader of the Students For Free Burma organization, in a telephone conversation.
Human rights defense associations denounce the escalation of clashes between the military, armed ethnic organizations and the civilian population a year and a half after the military coup d'état that put an end to the transition attempts begun a decade earlier and keeps the leader of the Government, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, and other politicians.
Driven by the peaceful protests against the military coup – held for months alongside active and silent strikes – the pro-democracy movement has been reinforced in its opposition to the military junta.
In addition, despite the harsh repression carried out by the security forces over the last 18 months, the armed resistance against the coup plotters has only intensified, to the point that international analysts warn that a civil war could break out.
Armed militias claim control of part of the territory in regions such as Chin and Sagaing (north) and Magwe.
"The brutality and cruelty of the Army have no limits," says Me Me.
This young activist emphasizes that “it is about surviving, literally, day by day.
Even if you are not related to the protests, you can end up in jail or dead if someone tips out false information about you.”
His statement is reinforced by the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, which warns that "being a political prisoner is more dangerous now than ever."
According to data compiled by this local NGO, 2,133 people have lost their lives at the hands of the Army – including children, students, activists, politicians, doctors and peaceful protesters – and more than 14,900 have been detained since the military coup.
Protests in Yangon after the executions, last Tuesday, in an image obtained from a video broadcast on social networks. LU NGE KHIT (LU NGE KHIT via REUTERS)
The coup junta's threats to the opposition reached a fever pitch with the execution by hanging of Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zayar Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw.
The first death sentences carried out in Myanmar since the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011 sends an intimidating message to those who refuse to give up the rights to demonstrate and associate.
Although the death sentence has never been revoked in the country, it used to be commuted to years in prison after the traditional pardons by the authorities on set dates.
Ko Jimmy, 53, and Phyo Zayar, 41, were two of the most prominent figures in the resistance.
The former already led the democratic uprisings of 1988, while the latter was a politician close to Aung San Suu Kyi.
Both had been sentenced to death for alleged "terrorist acts" in a closed-door trial in January.
The other two men, about whom little information is known, were considered "rebels".
A total of 118 people have been sentenced to death since February 1, 2021. According to the Political Prisoners Assistance Association, 41 of those waiting on death row have been separated from the rest of the inmates this week at the prison. of Insein, in Yangon, where the executions took place.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch agree that the Armed Forces have made a miscalculation by putting two beloved figures in Myanmar on the scaffold, as the decision further mobilizes the opposition.
"They have underestimated the power of the people and their desire to have a democratic government," Kyaw Sein, a researcher at Amnesty International who prefers to identify himself by a pseudonym for security reasons, says by email.
Both human rights organizations are highly critical of the lack of greater international sanctions.
The current ones affect members of the military junta and companies controlled by the military.
Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch's acting Asia director, believes that the condemnatory statements issued against the junta by the UN or numerous governments are not enough.
"What we really need is an arms embargo and sitting military leaders at the International Criminal Court," she says in a phone conversation.
foreign inaction
Both Pearson and Kyaw Sein believe that inaction from abroad has been a factor that has led some of the protesters to train with the ethnic minority guerrillas who have been rising against the
Tatmadaw
for decades .
They also reproach the international community for giving the Burmese junta a voice through multilateral platforms.
Recently, Russia and Myanmar chaired a meeting in Moscow on the fight against terrorism within the framework of a meeting of defense ministers of ASEAN-Plus (the organization, plus several surrounding countries).
The military justified the coup d'état in an alleged electoral fraud -never proven- in the November 2020 elections, in which the National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi's party, swept away, which had already done so in the general elections. 2015. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize has been detained since the coup, accused of almost twenty crimes.
She has already lost four trials and, if found guilty of all the charges against her, the sentences would mean more than two centuries behind bars.
The Burmese military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, promised last year "free, fair and multiparty elections" when the state of emergency ended in 2023, whose extension for six months was announced on Monday.
He considers Me "it has been obvious for a long time that the military has no intention or political commitment to negotiate."
"If we really want a federal democracy based on justice and equality, in which all ethnic groups can enjoy the same freedoms, the only way to overthrow this government is by force," he says.
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