South-East Asian top officials alarmed by planned executions of four Myanmar political prisoners

JAKARTA, June 7 (Bernama): Asean Parliamentarians for Human Righs (APHR) urged South-East asia and the international community to take action to stop the Myanmar junta from executing four political prisoners.

APHR in a statement released on its website on Monday said Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia were alarmed by the Myanmar junta’s announcement to carry out the death sentences handed down to the four political prisoners.

The four include prominent former member of Parliament, Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, and well-known pro-democracy activist, Kyaw Min Yu aka Ko Jimmy, both convicted on charges of terrorism and sentenced to death in Jan 2022.

"Asean and the international community must use every means at their disposal to prevent these executions from taking place. If they are carried out they will be nothing less than cold blooded political assassination.

"These executions would further contribute to prevent the already remote possibility of a sustainable political dialogue, as prescribed over one year ago in the Five-Point Consensus agreed by ASEAN member states and Min Aung Hlaing’s junta, which has not made any effort whatsoever in that direction,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament from Malaysia, and APHR Chairperson.

APHR calls on each and every member state of ASEAN, as well as its Dialogue Partners, to urgently demand an unconditional and immediate stay of execution and release of the four detainees by the junta.

APHR also unreservedly supports the recent United Nations Secretary General’s statement reminding Myanmar’s military that the death sentences are a blatant violation of the right to life, liberty and security of the person, as per Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If the death sentences are carried out, it would be the first known judicial executions in the country since 1988, according to Amnesty International, which considers Myanmar as "Abolitionist in Practice”, as it retains the death penalty in law, but has not applied it for decades.

Media reported the Myanmar junta as saying last week that appeals by Phyo Zeya Thaw and Yu against their death sentences had been rejected.

The two other men were reportedly sentenced to death for killing a woman they believed to be a collaborator working for Yangon.

Ever since the coup in February last year that ousted the democratically elected government, Myanmar has seen a drastic surge in the number of people sentenced to death with at least 86 people, including minors who were under 18 at the time, the statement said.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), some 14,018 people have been detained while 1,905 others have been killed by the junta since the coup. - Bernama