Myanmar’s ruling military on Tuesday defended the execution of four activists, which it said was legal and carried out in the name of justice for the people.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the executions were not personal but conducted under the law and the men were given a chance to defend themselves. He said the military government knew the executions, the first in decades in Myanmar, would draw criticism.
“That was justice for the people. These criminals were given a chance to defend themselves,” he told a regular televised press conference.
“I knew this would raise criticism, but it was done for justice. It wasn’t personal.”
News of the executions sparked international outrage, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations leading a chorus of condemnation accusing the junta of cruelty.
Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbors issued a rare and stinging rebuke to the military on Tuesday, calling the executions “highly reprehensible” and destructive to regional efforts to defuse the crisis.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in a statement from the Cambodian president, said it was “extremely disturbed and deeply saddened by the executions” as well as the timing.
“The implementation of the death sentences just a week before the 55th ASEAN ministerial meeting is highly reprehensible,” he said, adding that it shows the junta’s “gross unwillingness” to support the UN-backed ASEAN peace plan.
It was unclear how the executions were carried out and when they took place. Relatives of the convicted prisoners said on Monday they were not informed of the executions in advance and were not allowed to retrieve the bodies.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the return of the bodies is up to the prison head.
“Crime Against Humanity”
The executed men were among more than 100 people who activists say have been sentenced to death in secret trials by military courts since the coup.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Tuesday that his country views the executions as a crime against humanity.
He also accused the junta of mocking the ASEAN peace plan and said it should be barred from sending political representatives to any international ministerial meeting.
“We hope to have seen the last of the executions,” he said. “We will try to use every channel we can to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said he was concerned that the executions of opponents of the junta were not punctual.
“There are every indication that the military junta intends to continue carrying out the executions of those on death row, while continuing to bomb villages and detain innocent people across the country,” he said in an interview on Monday.
In Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, security has been tightened at the prison where the four executed men were held, a human rights group said on Tuesday, after a global outcry and a demonstration by inmates over the execution.
Two sources told Reuters that a protest took place at the prison. The Myanmar Now news portal said some inmates were beaten by prison authorities and separated from the general population.
Spokespeople for Yangon’s Insein Prison and corrections department did not respond to Reuters calls.
Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), which the junta calls “terrorists”, on Tuesday called for coordinated international action against the junta and said those executed “were martyred for their commitment to a free and democratic Myanmar.” .
Source: CNN Brasil
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