HomeUnited NationsMyanmar: Secretive military courts sentence scores of people to death

Myanmar: Secretive military courts sentence scores of people to death

They have frequently been denied access to lawyers or their loved ones and none have been acquitted.  

Dealing out death   

Meanwhile, on Thursday, reports revealed that as many as four additional death sentences were being issued against youngsters activists.     UNHCR/Roger Arnold On 23 November, 95 of 130 houses in the Kyunhla Township were burned down when the Myanmar military established fire to the settlement. “By resorting to use death content as a political tool in order to crush opposition, the military confirms its disdain for your efforts by ASEAN and the international community at large to finish violence and create the situations for a political dialogue to lead Myanmar out of a human rights crisis developed by the military” the EL human rights chief said.  

No justice  

“Forced evictions from Mingaladon are only section of the story. Violent arbitrary casing demolitions continue across the country”,   the  Special Rapporteurs on the  directly to adequate housing ,   Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and  situation of human legal rights in Myanmar ,   Thomas Andrews, said within a  statement . The UN Human Rights Office ( OHCHR ) is currently seeking clarification on those cases.   “The military continues to hold proceedings within secretive courts in infringement of basic principles of reasonable trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality”, Volker Türk added , calling for the suspension of executions and a return to a moratorium on death penalty.   Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back  on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not purchased their work. On Wednesday, the military court sentenced at least seven university students to loss of life.    

Unaligned with ASEAN  

“Homes continued to be systematically destroyed, bombed and burned down in orchestrated attacks on villages with the Myanmar security forces and junta-backed militias”, they said. After receiving eviction notices, the lack of options affected some residents to remain whilst two reportedly committed suicide out of desperation.

Despite calls from the Organization of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to desist, a former lawmaker, a democracy activist, and two others, were put to death.  

Without delivering alternative housing or land, last month more than 40, 000 residents living in informal settlements throughout Mingaladon, a township in northern Yangon, were evicted  – along with most given only a few times to dismantle the homes that they had lived in for decades.

Forced evictions

These types of incidents follow patterns of violence used against Rohingya villages during genocidal assaults in 2017. Military courts have regularly failed to uphold any level of transparency  – UN rights chief     Close to 1, 700 detainees out of the almost 16, 500 who have been arrested for opposing last year’s military’s coup have been attempted and convicted in key by ad hoc tribunals, sometimes lasting just minutes.     Mr. Türk reminded that the military’s actions aren’t in keeping with the ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus – that includes the “immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar” – which the regional bloc had re-committed in order to upholding last month during the ASEAN summit.  

Rohingya Muslims forced from Myanmar flee to Bangladesh.
In the summit, Secretary-General António Guterres had warned that the politics, security, human rights plus humanitarian situation in Myanmar was “sliding ever much deeper into catastrophe”, condemning the escalating violence, disproportionate utilization of force, and “appalling human being rights situation” in the country.

“The guidelines of scorched earth in Myanmar are widespread plus follow a systematic pattern, ” the experts said.

‘Scorched earth’ policy

In July, the military carried out four Condition executions – the first in approximately 30 years.     At the same time, the Myanmar military is forcibly evicting over 50, 000 people from informal settlements plus systematically destroying homes about what two UN-appointed independent human rights experts called   a significant violation of core human rights obligations. According to the experts, not just those living in informal settlements in Myanmar’s cities had been subjected to forced evictions and housing demolitions. Rohingya Muslims forced from Myanmar flee to Bangladesh. “Military legal courts have consistently failed to support any degree of transparency unlike the most basic due process or fair trial guarantees”, underscored Mr. Türk.     The latest convictions would bring the total number of people sentenced to capital punishment since 1 February 2021 to 139 individuals.   Since the military coup last year, a lot more than 38, 000 houses have been destroyed, triggering the common displacement of over one 1 million people.

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