Myanmar’s military administration has executed two anti-coup activists and planned to execute five more on September 24, according to rights groups, calling for international action.
Maung Kaung Htet and his wife Chan Myae Thu were executed at 4 a.m. Myanmar time (21:30 GMT) on September 23, according to a Women’s Peace Network statement released on Monday.
The couple were convicted “without due process and a fair trial” for allegedly being involved in a package bomb attempt on Yangon’s Insein Prison in October 2022, according to the rights group.
It warned that five additional pro-democracy activists, Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, Zeyar Phyo, Hsann Min Aung, Kyaw Win Soe, and Myat Phyo Myint, were facing execution on Tuesday. The five were found guilty in a closed court in May 2023 after being imprisoned since September 2021 for the alleged fatal shooting of four police officers aboard a Yangon train.
By murdering more people, the junta will be further emboldened to execute the remaining over 120 other detainees also charged with sham death penalties,” the Women’s Peace Network said.
Myanmar’s military, which seized power in a coup in February 2021, startled the world by executing four pro-democracy campaigners in July 2022, the first time the death sentence was used since the late 1980s.
The problem in Myanmar has only gotten worse since, with the generals facing a new attack from ethnic armed groups linked with pro-democracy parties over vast areas of country. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is driving diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem, to speak up.