UN rapporteur calls for executions to serve as “tipping point” to address crisis

AI sees executions as “another example of the military junta’s appalling human rights record,” while HRW calls it “utter cruelty.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tom Andrews, has called on the international community that the execution of four opponents and activists serve as a “turning point” to step forward and take action to address the serious crisis facing the Asian country.

“I am devastated by the news coming in about the execution of activist Ko Jimmy and MP Zeyar Thaw, executed along with two others. UN members must honor their lives by making these depraved acts a turning point,” he said in a statement.

He said he was “outraged” by what happened and expressed his support for “the families, friends and loved ones” as well as “all the Burmese people, “who are victims of the military junta’s actions and atrocities”.

“These individuals have been tried and convicted by a military court without the right to appeal the court decision and without any legal counsel, in a clear violation of human rights,” he said.

In this sense, he has pointed out that the “systematic killing of demonstrators, the indiscriminate attacks against localities, and now the execution of opposition leaders, requires immediate action by the member states of the United Nations.” “What more does the junta have to do for the international community to respond?” he said.

He also accused the military junta of “laughing” at the five points proposed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a ‘road map’ to put the country on track and stressed the need to “take measures that are commensurate with these immeasurable acts.”

For his part, the regional director of Amnesty International (AI), Arwin van der Borght, denounced that these executions should be interpreted as “arbitrary deprivation of life” and that they are “another example of Burma’s appalling human rights record”.

“The four men were convicted by a military court in highly secretive and deeply unfair trials. The international community must act immediately, as there are believed to be more than a hundred people on death row after being convicted in similar trials,” Van der Borght stressed.

At this point, the regional director of AI has accused the Burmese military junta of being involved in “extrajudicial killings, torture and a whole range of human rights violations” since its seizure of power in February 2021.

“At a time when more and more countries are taking steps to abolish the death penalty, the resumption of executions after more than three decades not only contradicts the global trend, but is also contrary to the goal of abolition enshrined in international human rights law,” Van der Borght stressed.

Finally, Amnesty International urged the Burmese authorities to establish “immediately” a moratorium on executions.

“ACT OF ABSOLUTE CRUELTY”

In the same vein, Human Rights Watch (HRW) acting Asia director Elaine Pearson has called the recent executions “an act of absolute cruelty” by the Burmese military authorities.

She has also shared the position of other organizations that the judicial process against the opponents and activists were “manifestly unfair and politically motivated.”

“This horrific news has been compounded by the board’s failure to notify the families of the men, who learned of the executions through the board’s media reports,” Pearson has denounced.

“The junta’s barbarism and callous disregard for human life are aimed at chilling the protest movement against the coup. European Union member states, the United States and other governments should show the junta that there will be a reckoning for its crimes,” Pearson added.

Finally, HRW stressed the need for “immediate measures” to be implemented, including the release of all political prisoners, as well as letting Burma’s military authorities know that their actions “have consequences”.

These are the first executions to be carried out in the country since ethnic Chin student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo was hanged by the authoritarian regime of dictator General Ne Win at Rangoon’s Insein Prison in 1976.