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By Aung Zaw 27 July 2022
Two weeks in the past, Myanmar’s murderer-in-chief Senior Basic Min Aung Hlaing was in Russia with two high-profile Buddhist monks to consecrate a pagoda on the Ethnomir cultural middle in Kaluga close to Moscow. Since final 12 months’s army coup, the final has spent a lot of his time making an attempt to show that he’s a ruler who will defend and protect Buddhism. At dwelling, his priorities embody constructing a Buddha statue—touted because the world’s largest sitting Buddha picture—and hoisting Hti decorative umbrellas at pagodas. However this flurry of spiritual exercise has accomplished little to cover the deepening turmoil sparked by his coup. Day by day, the nation descends deeper into its a number of crises, and Min Aung Hlaing’s troopers proceed to commit atrocities.
Whereas he would have us imagine he’s a religious and good Buddhist, every week after the Russia go to he ordered the executions of 4 activists, together with two distinguished figures.
Previous to final weekend’s executions, physicians examined the 4 condemned convicts. Two of the inmates had for many years been high-profile figures in Myanmar’s nonviolent democracy battle, however after the coup had been arrested and accused of terrorist acts together with mine and concrete guerrilla assaults. Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, 41, was a former member of Parliament for the Nationwide League for Democracy, and Ko Kyaw Min Yu, 53, higher often called Ko Jimmy, was a widely known activist. Each had already frolicked as political prisoners beneath the earlier army regime.
The opposite two have been little recognized: Ko Hla Myo Aung and Ko Aung Thura Zaw have been accused of murdering a girl they believed to be an informant for the regime. Early this 12 months, they have been charged and tried by a army court docket beneath an anti-terrorism legislation and sentenced to demise. Not one of the 4 obtained a good and public trial.
Final week, the physicians who examined the prisoners reportedly concluded that they have been to not match to hold. Nonetheless, the executions went forward. The order to proceed got here from none apart from Min Aung Hlaing.
The coup chief even despatched trusted officers from Naypyitaw to supervise the executions to verify they have been carried out in secrecy. Lt Gen Soe Htut, minister for Residence Affairs, reportedly supervised the execution.
With the executions, Min Aung Hlaing might need impressed his hardcore coup supporters within the army, however in any other case the act has shocked the whole nation and shocked governments within the area and past.
In a letter final month, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, the present chairman of ASEAN, appealed to the junta chief to not execute Ko Kyaw Min Yu and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw.
Min Aung Hlaing and his officers ignored the enchantment from Hun Sen—one of many few leaders within the area who appeared inclined to assist him and his regime acquire legitimacy—selecting as an alternative to kill his hostages. What’s going on in his thoughts that he thought he might obtain something from this heinous act?
Removed from being persuaded to indicate restraint, Min Aung Hlaing actually hardened his stance.
Because the coup, the regime has deployed a method of annihilation, conducting clearance operations in opposition to each the armed opposition and the civilian inhabitants.
In June, the junta chief despatched detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose elected authorities he ousted, from home arrest to solitary confinement in a jail in Naypyitaw. ( Ko Zeya Thaw was near Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and accompanied her on her first journey to China in 2015. She has discovered about his execution, which is believed to have been supposed partly as a message to her, an try to interrupt her spirit. A regime-friendly social media publish even celebrated that “Suu Kyi’s little husband” had been hanged.)
Min Aung Hlaing has additionally tightened his grip on the nation, sending jet fighters and helicopters to assault resistance forces and civilian areas. He and his regime appear to have little curiosity in profitable the hearts and minds of the inhabitants.
Or have been the executions a determined transfer by the junta to indicate power?
Like psychopaths, Min Aung Hlaing and a few of his commanders appear to imagine that exhibiting brute power and sowing terror are the one methods to cope with the individuals and regime opponents.
Nonetheless, they’ll by no means win. The executions will backfire, as he has merely poured extra gasoline onto the hearth of opposition to his regime.
The junta doesn’t appear to fret or care a lot about penalties. In a single day, the 4 executed prisoners have develop into revolutionary heroes, and Min Aung Hlaing has gained zero. Maybe he’s motivated solely by private hatred for the democratic opposition? In that case, that is the revenge he has lengthy been ready for.
With the army having loved authorized impunity in Myanmar for many years, the regime, like its predecessors, feels free to commit mass atrocities, human rights violations, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests and detention.
The concern is that the weekend’s executions received’t be the final; dozens of Myanmar residents have been sentenced to demise because the coup.
The junta spokesman instructed a information convention within the capital, Naypyidaw, “We proceeded with the legal guidelines to maintain the soundness of the nation in keeping with the rule of legislation.”
Placing a defiant notice, he stated the 4 have been sentenced legally by the courts, including: “I’ll repeat that their acts ought to be sentenced to demise a number of instances.”
Min Aung Hlaing is aware of he can get away with crimes. Earlier than the coup, he famously stated, “There’s nothing I dare not do.”
He and his commanders know the outcry and condemnation from overseas will quickly subside.
Final 12 months, I encountered a mid-ranking army officer who scoffed on the worldwide condemnation and protests in Myanmar in opposition to the coup.
Referring to the worldwide condemnation and protests, he stated that “they’ll shout and scream if they need, however they’ll get drained and exhausted; then they’ll quieten down.”
The US stated there will be no “enterprise as typical” with the junta following its execution of the 4 democracy activists, including that each one choices have been on the desk because it thought of additional measures to punish the regime.
In actuality, although, Min Aung Hlaing is feeling little strain. If he did, he wouldn’t order such merciless and cowardly executions. As former US ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel put it, after Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, the Myanmar regime is the worst Southeast Asia has recognized.
US sanctions might need been tightened, however Min Aung Hlaing nonetheless believes he has pals and allies he can depend on, together with Russia, China, India and Japan, in addition to Thailand and a few others within the Southeast Asia area. He is aware of the worldwide group is stuffed with hypocrites.
Little question Min Aung Hlaing was glad to listen to from his subordinates that the executions have been carried out efficiently. However what did Kyaw Min Yu and Zeya Thaw utter as their final phrases? Together with their goodbyes to their households, maybe in addition they cursed Min Aung Hlaing and the failure of ASEAN and all the opposite hypocrites.
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Myanmar Regime’s Execution of Democracy Activists Condemned at Residence and Overseas
Executed Myanmar Democracy Activist’s Mom Recollects Final Assembly
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