UN warns of ‘wave of executions’ in Myanmar

Two UN experts have warned of the “beginning of a wave of executions” in Myanmar after the country’s military council decided to carry out death sentences against four people.

This came in a joint statement issued on Friday evening by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Maurice Tidbal Baines.

On June 3, the military council announced that it would execute a former member of the party of the former chancellor of the state and a prominent activist, as well as two other people without being named, in the first executions in the country since 1990.

In their statement, the two UN experts urged the international community to “exercise greater pressure on the Myanmar military to confront the growing violations of human rights.”

The statement stated, “At least 114 people have been sentenced to death, including 41 in absentia, since the military coup carried out by the army in early February 2021.”

And he warned, “that the execution of the sentences becomes the beginning of a wave of executions in Myanmar.”

It pointed out that “the imposition of the death penalty occurs in conjunction with the extrajudicial killings committed by the army against civilians, which are now estimated at about two thousand people.”

“Without imposing huge costs on the military for its attacks on basic rights, we should expect increasing numbers of death sentences issued by the military council,” he added.

It explained that “one of the convicts is a former member of parliament from the (National League for Democracy), and the other is the leader of the activist group (Generation 88) that stood against the regime of former dictator Ne Win.”

The statement did not provide more details about the four convicts.

In early February 2021, Myanmar army leaders carried out a military coup, followed by the arrest of senior leaders in the country, including President Win Myint and Chancellor Aung San Suu Kyi.