What’s happening in Myanmar?
Activists fear ‘killing spree’ in Myanmar after executions
On 25 July, Myanmar’s military junta put four pro-democracy activists to death, the country’s first executions in more than 30 years.
The killings have drawn widespread international condemnation, including a US warning that “there can be no business as usual with this regime”. The regionally influential Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, said the executions are “ highly reprehensible “.
But Myanmar’s government, led for the past 17 months by military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, remains defiant. Defending its execution of the “criminals”, it said the killings weren’t “personal”, just entirely deserved. It added that this was “ justice for the people “.
Britain’s Channel 4 coincidentally screened a long-scheduled documentary ‘ Myanmar: The Forgotten Revolution ‘ on 25 July, just hours after the executions became international news. Using footage shot by anonymous activists in the country, the chilling programme starts in February 2021, when protests erupted after the military coup against Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. It shows the overwhelmingly youthful protesters’ horror when their army starts to shoot them dead on the streets of Myanmar’s cities and towns.
The documentary, which seeks to force global attention onto what it calls ‘the world’s forgotten civil war’, comes amid growing calls for Myanmar to be internationally ostracised.
Malaysia’s foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah has grimly noted the timing of the executions, saying they needed to be taken “very, very seriously” as they seemed to make “ a mockery” of an ASEAN-led peace plan to facilitate dialogue between Myanmar’s military leaders and opponents.
The United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said the execution of “patriots and champions of human rights and democracy” was “depraved” and “must be a turning point for the international community”.
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