Myanmar Military Executes Four Pro-Democracy Activists

Yangon, MINA – The military junta in Myanmar executed four pro-democracy activists, including political activists, Anadolu Agency reported on Monday.

The executions took place over the weekend and the military regime refused to hand over the bodies to their families, according to local Myanmar news sites.

Those executed were Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, former lawmaker Phyo Zayar Thaw, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw who was arrested last year.

According to Myanmar’s Junta media Global New Light, the four were charged with “brutal murder” on March 14, 2021.

Kyaw Min Yu, 53, is a veteran of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising in the Buddhist-majority country.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, an ally of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is 41 years old and a member of parliament for the National League for Democracy.

This is the first time since the 1980s Myanmar has carried out executions.

The junta accused the four of giving directions, making arrangements, and conspiracy to commit acts of brutal and inhumane terror such as killing many innocent people.

According to news site Myanmar Now, the four executed prisoners were only allowed to meet their families at Insein Prison in Yangon on Friday via video link.

The family was allowed to visit the prison, but the meeting was held online.

Junta officials told families they should not return to prisons with food or medicine for the prisoners.

“The next morning, the four prisoners were reportedly executed in the prison grounds,” the report said, adding that the bodies were cremated at Yangon’s Htein Pin cemetery on the same day.

The United Nations estimates that more than 700,000 people were displaced in the country as of June 1, including more than 250,000 children.

Some 117 people have been sentenced to death by the junta since last year’s military coup, including 41 people sentenced in absentia. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)