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Myanmar junta plans to execute 5 anti-military activists: sources

September 23, 2024/in News

Rights group denounces use of capital punishment as a tool against dissent. Myanmar’s military junta is planning to execute by Tuesday five political prisoners for the 2021 murder of a police officer, activists and other sources said, raising concern among rights groups about the conduct of their trial and the prospect of the military using capital punishment […]

Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery

September 20, 2024/in News

The military is regularly attacking rebel-held Nawnghkio and Hsipaw townships. Myanmar’s junta is conducting regular airstrikes and artillery attacks on towns in northern Shan state that are firmly under rebel control in a resurgence of violence in the area, residents said Thursday. On Monday, the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, said that the […]

Myanmar junta plans to execute 5 anti-military activists: sources

September 23, 2024/in News

Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery

September 20, 2024/in News

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Myanmar junta plans to execute 5 anti-military activists: sources

September 23, 2024/in News

Rights group denounces use of capital punishment as a tool against dissent.

Myanmar’s military junta is planning to execute by Tuesday five political prisoners for the 2021 murder of a police officer, activists and other sources said, raising concern among rights groups about the conduct of their trial and the prospect of the military using capital punishment to suppress dissent.

Authorities in Insein prison, in the main city of Yangon, have been making preparations for the execution of the inmates, one of them a woman, including taking their measurements, said a source close to the prison who declined to be identified.

“We can confirm that the gallows have been prepared but we don’t know when, or if, the executions will take place. I’ve also learned that they have been allowed to meet with their families,” said the source.

The five, Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, Kyaw Win Soe, San Min Aung, Zayyar Phyo and Myat Phyo Pwint, were sentenced to death by a special prison court for the shooting and killing of a police officer at Ahlone Station in Yangon on Aug. 14, 2021.

Radio Free Asia tried to telephone the junta’s main spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, to ask about the situation but he did not answer the calls. He told the BBC Burmese service several days ago that he had heard nothing about any planned executions. RFA also tried to contact the deputy director general of the Prison Department but he did not respond.

RFA was also unable to reach any relatives of the five.

The junta that seized power in an early 2021 coup carried out the first executions in Myanmar for several decades with the 2022 execution of four democracy activists accused of “terror acts”, triggering a wave of condemnation, including from the United Nations, European Union and the United States.

The rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma reports that as of March, 164 people had been sentenced to death since the 2021 coup, which triggered a wave of opposition to military rule and an armed uprising.

The group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, or APHR, urged the military council to halt any plan to carry out the executions saying it was “alarmed by the use of the death penalty and how these trials were conducted.”

“These actions represent a grievous infringement of human rights and a blatant disregard for international legal standards,” the group said.

“The use of capital punishment as a tool to suppress dissent is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” said APHR board member Wong Chen, who is a Malaysian member of parliament.

‘On alert

Thaik Tun Oo, an official from the Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar, said the rumors of impending executions in the absence of any official word was akin to a “psychological operation” by the military to spread fear.

“Families are worried, and it seems this is being done deliberately. This isn’t official news from the prison side, nor does such news typically reach outside,” said Thaik Tun Oo. “I sense that a psychological operation is taking place.”

A senior member of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, set up by pro-democracy politicians after the 2021 coup, said an investigation into the rumors of impending executions had revealed that health checks, typically conducted before executions, were being carried out not only in Insein but in other prisons as well.

“We are deeply concerned. The international community is on alert, with some considering statements expressing their concern and urging that these executions not be carried out,” he said.

An attorney told RFA that the families of condemned prisoners had to be notified 24 hours before an execution is carried out.

“If the death sentence is confirmed and the execution is carried out, the law stipulates that the prisoner must be informed 24 hours in advance, followed by notification to their family,” said the lawyer, who declined to be identified for security reasons.

“During that 24-hour period, there is no limit to the number of family members who can visit. So have they actually been allowed to meet with their families? Have any conversations taken place? Have they been notified? These questions are crucial.”

RFA News

Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery

September 20, 2024/in News

The military is regularly attacking rebel-held Nawnghkio and Hsipaw townships.

Myanmar’s junta is conducting regular airstrikes and artillery attacks on towns in northern Shan state that are firmly under rebel control in a resurgence of violence in the area, residents said Thursday.

On Monday, the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, said that the air force dropped more than 50 bombs on Hsipaw with Y-12 aircraft, and that aerial attacks were being carried out every day on Nawnghkio. Both towns are under TNLA control.

The attacks are the latest spasm of violence in Myanmar’s three-year civil war, in which rebels appear to have the upper hand, prompting the military to lash out at towns under their control.

While armed clashes are taking place in Nawnghkio township’s Tawng Hkam village, the junta has repeatedly targeted the township seat with airstrikes and artillery attacks,

a resident of Nawnghkio who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Burmese.

“They are also carrying out airstrikes on places where there is no fighting,” he said. “They have been firing heavy weapons from [the nearby township of] Pyin Oo Lwin for four or five days. Yesterday, their attacks hit houses. No [rebel] forces are stationed there.”

Damage from a military junta airstrike in Nungcho township, Myanmar, Sept. 19, 2024. (PSLF/TNLA News via Telegram)

The TNLA captured key junta artillery battalions in Nawnghkio on Aug. 28 and fighting around the township’s remaining military outposts has continued since then.

Another Nawnghkio resident, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the junta is carrying out “continuous airstrikes” in this area.

“Around 2-3 a.m., the junta dropped about five bombs, possibly using Y12 aircraft,” he said, adding that no one was hit in the attacks.

Recent casualties

On Sept. 13 and 14, at least 10 bombs were dropped by aircraft on Nawnghkio town, residents said, while on Sept. 17, junta artillery shells killed three members of the same family – Cho Myint, 40, and two boys aged 3 and 17.

A recent junta airstrike on Hsipwaw town injured a 60-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl, while also destroying several houses, the TNLA reported on Wednesday.

A resident of Hsipaw told RFA that fighting had intensified in the township beginning last week, and the junta has been carrying out aerial attacks since then.

“TNLA totally controls the town, except for the military’s No. 23 Light Battalion,” he said. “Junta troops are trying to retake this camp. Airstrikes were used in the fighting, hitting residents and killing some people.”

RFA was unable to independently confirm the exact number of casualties.

Fighting began in Hsipaw in the last week of June, when the second round of a major ethnic offensive known as 1027 Operation began. On Aug. 10, the TNLA took control of all parts of Hsipaw after junta troops withdrew from Hsipaw Bridge and the town center.

Attempts by RFA to contact Khun Thein Maung, the junta’s economic minister and Shan state spokesman, for comment on the use of airstrikes in the area went unanswered Thursday, as did efforts to reach TNLA spokeswoman Lway Yae Oo.

According to the health ministry under Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, on Sept. 7, the junta carried out 11 airstrikes in Shan, Kayah and Chin states, as well as Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay and Bago regions, killing more than 40 people.

During the second round of Operation 1027, the opposition forces under the NUG seized Mandalay region’s Mogoke, Singu, Thabeik Kyin and Tha Gaung townships, as well as several townships and the towns of Moemeik, Naunghkio, Hsipaw and Lashio in northern Shan state.

End of cooperation with NUG?

Meanwhile, a ethnic army that helped launch Operation 1027 with the TNLA said it will cease fighting and end its cooperation with the NUG militarily or politically.

The rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA – which, along with the TNLA and the Arakan Army, or AA, form the ethnic Three Brotherhood Alliance – said in a statement on Wednesday that it will not align with any group that opposes neighboring China and said it will work with Beijing to bring an end to Myanmar’s conflict.

Also known as the Kokang Army, the MNDAA said that despite taking control of much of northern Shan state, including the largest city Lashio, it has no plans to seize the state capital Taunggyi or Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay.

However, the group did not go as far as announcing an end to hostilities with the military and said it would defend its territory and pursue autonomy if necessary.

The ethnic army had posted a similar statement to Facebook on Sept. 4, after China warned rebel groups to end fighting with the junta along its southern border, but later took it down.

The NUG has provided no response to the MNDAA statement.

Observers suggested that the MNDAA statement was the result of intense pressure from China, which has shut down key trade routes along the border amid fighting there.

Media outlet Myanmar Now cited political commentator Than Soe Naing as saying that the MNDAA was “simply announcing the direction laid out for them by China.”

The junta has accused Beijing – one of its few remaining international supporters – of backing the TNLA and MNDAA, with junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing saying in early August that the military lost Lashio because of China’s involvement.

Later that month, Min Aung Hlaing met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Naypyidaw, after which the Chinese embassy issued a statement suggesting that external forces were attempting to damage China-Myanmar relations.

RFA News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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