As part of this week’s amnesty for more than 2,000 political detainees, Myanmar’s military has reduced the death sentences of 38 individuals. The human rights commission of Myanmar issued a brief statement in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar on Friday expressing “deeply delighted” at the decision to commute death sentences to life imprisonment and at the release of individuals imprisoned for resisting the coup. The statement concluded with the words, “The Commission hopes that similar positive steps will be continued in the future.”
It didn’t go into detail about the commutations or the inmates involved. Since seizing power from the elected government in February 2021, Myanmar’s military has used brutal force against those who oppose its rule. These protests have since turned into an armed uprising. A large number of people, including those who have joined long-existing ethnic armed organizations, have joined the People’s Defense Forces founded by the National Unity Government of elected lawmakers ousted from office by the generals. The military has labelled its opponents as “terrorists,” and the Assistance Association for Political inmates, which has been following the crackdown, reports that 112 inmates are presently waiting for execution. In the first use of the death penalty in the country since the 1980s, the generals shocked the world by executing four prominent political activists in July of last year. Among the four men who were assassinated was Phyo Zeya Thaw, a key supporter of detained Nobel Peace Prize winner and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Dissidents are put on trial in secret, military-run courts, which human rights organizations have condemned for violating basic criteria of fair trial. Confessions gained through torture or other ill-treatment, such as regular beatings, are routinely used as evidence in court, claims Human Rights Watch. Seven college students were found guilty of murdering a former military commander in Yangon and given the death penalty by a military trial in November. Three further guys were given death sentences for the murder of a municipal official that same month. Human Rights Watch issued a statement later demanding that the sentences be reduced.
