BANGKOK: The UN Security Council has condemned the Myanmar junta’s execution of four prisoners, drawing praise Thursday from a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers.
In a rare consensus on the post-coup crisis, the Security Council on Wednesday released a statement condemning the executions — Myanmar’s first in decades — and calling for the immediate release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The members of the Security Council condemned the Myanmar military’s execution of opposition activists over the weekend,” the Council said.
“They recalled the Secretary-General’s statement of 25 July 2022 and echoed his call for the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners.”
The statement was endorsed by Russia and China — the junta’s two major allies that have previously shielded it at the UN — as well as neighboring India.
“Welcome UN Security Council condemning execution of democracy activists,” said the “National Unity Government” (NUG) on a verified Twitter account.
It was time for the council to “take concrete actions against the junta, it added.
The NUG — dominated by lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted party — has been working to topple the coup and been declared a “terrorist” organization by the junta.
The executions announced Monday sparked condemnation from around the globe, heightened fears that more will follow and prompted calls for sterner international measures against the already-isolated junta.
Among the four executed were Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu — better known as “Jimmy.”
Both were sentenced to death under anti-terrorism laws.
The junta is increasingly isolated on the world stage, with Cambodian leader Hun Sen the only head of state to have visited since the coup that plunged the country into turmoil.
The Cambodian PM had also made a personal request to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing not to go ahead with the executions.
Myanmar’s junta has lashed out against international condemnation of its use of capital punishment, saying the four executed prisoners “deserved many death sentences.”
UN Security Council condemns Myanmar executions
https://arab.news/vrtjb
UN Security Council condemns Myanmar executions
- Also calls for the immediate release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi
- The executions announced Monday sparked condemnation from around the globe
In Ethiopia, Tigrayans fear return to ‘full-scale war’
- Flights have been suspended into Tigray since Thursday and local authorities reported drone strikes on goods lorries
- The international community fears the fighting could turn into an international conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea
ADDIS ABABA: Tigrayans in northern Ethiopia fear a return to all-out war amid reports that clashes were continuing between local and federal forces on Monday, barely three years after the last devastating conflict in the region.
The civil war of 2020-2022 between the Ethiopian government and Tigray forces killed more than 600,000 people and a peace deal known as the Pretoria Agreement has never fully resolved the tensions.
Fighting broke out again last week in a disputed area of western Tigray called Tselemt and the Afar region to the east of Tigray.
Abel, 38, a teacher in Tigray’s second city Adigrat, said he still hadn’t recovered from the trauma of the last war and had now “entered into another round of high anxiety.”
“If war breaks out now... it could lead to an endless conflict that can even be dangerous to the larger east African region,” added Abel, whose name has been changed along with other interviewees to protect their identity.
Flights have been suspended into Tigray since Thursday and local authorities reported drone strikes on goods lorries on Saturday that killed at least one driver.
In Afar, a humanitarian worker, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said there had been air strikes on Tigrayan forces and that clashes were ongoing on Monday, with tens of thousands of people displaced.
AFP could not independently verify the claims and the government has yet to give any comment on the clashes.
In the regional capital Mekele, Nahom, 35, said many people were booking bus tickets this weekend to leave, fearing that land transport would also be restricted soon.
“My greatest fear is the latest clashes turning into full-scale war and complete siege like what happened before,” he told AFP by phone, adding that he, too, would leave if he could afford it.
Gebremedhin, a 40-year-old civil servant in the city of Axum, said banks had stopped distributing cash and there were shortages in grocery stores.
“This isn’t only a problem of lack of supplies but also hoarding by traders who fear return of conflict and siege,” he said.
The region was placed under a strict lockdown during the last war, with flights suspended, and banking and communications cut off.
The international community fears the fighting could turn into an international conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relations have been increasingly tense in recent months.
The Ethiopian government accuses the Tigrayan authorities and Eritrea of forging closer ties.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about... the risk of a return to a wider conflict in a region still working to rebuild and recover,” his spokesman said.
The EU said that an “immediate de-escalation is imperative to prevent a renewed conflict.”
