The execution of democracy activists and a former legislator marks a new low in the Junta's reign of terror
Given Myanmar's ruling junta's record of unmitigated savagery, its announcement on July 25, 2022, of the execution of four pro-democracy activists and politicians, including a former legislator, is shocking but hardly surprising. The four were former legislator from Daw Aung San SuuKyi's political party, National League for Democracy, Phyo Zeya Thaw, prominent pro-democracy activist, Kyaw Min Yu, and two other men, HlaMyoAung and AungThuraZaw. A report by Rebecca Ratcliffe and Maung Mo, datelined July 25, 2022, in The Guardian cites Global New Light of Myanmar, the Junta-controlled news outlet, as saying that they had been accused of committing terror acts.
As with all sham trials during the Junta's rule, their's were held behind closed doors. The appeal they had filed was rejected in June, 2022. In violation of international human rights laws, they were denied access to legal counsel during their appeal hearings. The decision to execute them was announced in June itself, sparking protests from the world over. The United Nations had condemned the decision, as had the United States and France among other countries. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), had written to the junta chief, Senior General Min AungHliang, in June, requesting him not to carry out the executions. The junta went ahead despite all this. Though it has not given any detail, the executions were most probably carried out by hanging inside Yangon's notorious Insein prison on July 23, 2022.
To all appearances, a proneness to wanton cruelty is the defining attribute of the mindset of the generals presiding over the junta. That apart, executions may well reflect an attempt to halt the continuing protests against their rule. They have unleashed murderous repression since they usurped power through the coup they staged on February 1, 2021. According to the website (www.aappb.org) of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)-AAPPB-based in Thailand and Yangon, 14,909 persons had been arrested in Myanmar following the coup, of whom 11,815 still remained in detention as on July 28, 2022. The Junta had killed 2,133 persons (in the course of its crackdown) and released 3,072.
All this notwithstanding opposition to the Junta is growing. Some leaders of the National League for Democracy - the party led by Daw SuuKyi - activists and representatives of several insurgent ethnic organisatons and minor parties, formed a National Unity Government (NUG) on April 16, 2021. In May, 2021, NUG announced the formation of its armed wing, the People's Defence Force (PDF).
According to a report by Richard C Paddock (The New York Times, June 6, 2022), it has a strength of 60,000. Also, the NUG, according to Paddock, claims that at least 14,890 soldiers of Tatmadaw-the official name for the Myanmarese military--died fighting while its forces lost only 1,000 fighters. The Tatmadaw does not give casualty figures but that it is having a hard time is clear from its burning of villages, use of indiscriminate artillery fire and air attacks against civilian targets.
The Tatmadaw's response suggests that Myanmar is in the midst of a civil war that is set to expand. The Tatmadaw suffers from low morale and desertions. Its weaponry is more suitable to conventional warfare than anti-guerrilla operations; its new generation of soldiers lack combat experience. Not surprisingly, therefore, it is losing control over increasingly large areas. Its inability to prevent the assassination - at the rate of more than one a day - of village ward administrators appointed by it, clearly indicates this. The opposition, however, lacks numerical strength besides heavy artillery, tanks and aircraft, without which it will not be able to win large battles in the plains. One thus has a scenario in which the junta and opposition forces are unable to defeat each other, and the entire country is an expanding war theatre with guerrilla and terrorist action countering state repression.
The junta will try to prevail through the only way it knows-intensifying repression. No doubt, the UN Security Council has condemned the executions and called for the release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners, including President Win Myint and democracy icon Aung San SuuKyi. In fact, there has been worldwide expression of horror and anger. Nevertheless, the Ukraine war has relegated events in Myanmar to the margins of the global discourse. The Myanmarese people have to fight for democracy on their own.
Meanwhile, the Burmese living inLondon had collected in Battersea Park on 23 July, 2022, to mark their country's annual Martyrs Day. A young man who addressed the gathering, said, "With international attention focused elsewhere, and organisations either impotent, or reluctant to intervene, Burma has been left to its plight, and those that resist the military are struggling with little to no aid from outside. However - whilst governments and organisations fail to act, many people around the world are doing all they can to help. That help is needed desperately and right now." The young man was Daw Aung San SuuKyi's son, KoHtein Lin Kim Aris.
(The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal.)
