Hundreds gathered outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok this afternoon to condemn the execution of four high-profile activists by its ruling junta.
A day after the junta said it had executed four pro-democracy activists including a longtime advocate for change and a hip-hop artist-turned-politician, the protesters, mostly from Myanmar, crowded around the embassy compound on lower Sathorn Road and called for the international community to respond.
Zai, 30, said he fled Myanmar three months ago, leaving his family in Yangon. His sister is in jail.
“Of course we want other countries to interfere and take action, but what I want more than that is people to be united and show the power of democracy to the world,” he said. “People should know about civil rights and democracy and speak out.”
Undaunted by rain, protesters chanted “Fight for Myanmar,” and “Min Aung Hlaing, get out!” The protest began around noon and the crowd was still swelling as of 1:30pm. People crowded the street and shouted slogans from a skywalk connected to BTS Saint Louis. Many raised three fingers in a symbolic gesture that has come to define the so-called Milk Tea Alliance of nations fighting against autocratic governments.
A woman who identified herself as Phyo was brimming with tears and wore a red shirt with deposed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on it, whom she referred to as her “mother.”
“I’m here today to show the power of Myanmar’s people, although we’re so far from home,” she said. “It’s very cruel for [junta leader Min Aung Hlaing] and his henchmen to execute four good men.”
The executions were carried out Saturday, according to a junta spokesperson, Myanmar’s first use of capital punishment since the late 1980s. The junta, which seized power last year and faces a growing armed uprising against its rule, said they were guilty of barbaric acts of terrorism.
The four killed included 41-year-old Phyo Zayar Thaw, who rapped against the former dictatorship 20 years ago, helping spawn Myanmar’s politically charged hip-hop scene. In 2012 he was elected to parliament as a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. Also executed was prominent activist Kyaw Min Yu, aka Ko Jimmy, a respected 53-year-old activist active since he was a student in the late 1980s.
The other two were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, who a military court convicted in April and sentenced to die for killing a military informant, according to the junta.
The military has been on its back foot since a popular uprising arose following its February 2021 coup d’etat. Security forces responded to large-scale protests and acts of civil disobedience by gunning down civilians, arresting journalists, and attempting to stamp out dissent.
The executions are unlikely to change that trajectory, as armed groups continue to battle the military in concert with the armed ethnic groups which have been in revolt for decades.
Rights groups have also condemned Myanmar’s military and called for international action.
“The junta’s barbarity and callous disregard for human life aims to chill the anti-coup protest movement,” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “European Union member states, the United States, and other governments should show the junta that there will be a reckoning for its crimes. They should demand immediate measures, including the release of all political prisoners, and let the junta know the atrocities it commits have consequences.”
Amnesty International also joined in, calling out Myanmar’s government for committing atrocities.
“These executions amount to arbitrary deprivation of lives and are another example of Myanmar’s atrocious human rights record,” said Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty International’s Regional Director. “The international community must act immediately as more than 100 people are believed to be on death row after being convicted in similar proceedings.”
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the international community should intervene.
“When is world going do something about crimes against humanity in Myanmar?” Robertson wrote on Monday. “There’s been a failure to impose sanctions, a failure to impose a global arms embargo, all the sorts of things we were calling for last year that were absolutely critical to constrain a military junta prepared to commit crimes against humanity.”
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