UN Myanmar investigators monitor reports that 'executions may be imminent'

GENEVA — A United Nations team of investigators on Myanmar is closely monitoring reports that executions in the country could be imminent, its chief said on Sept 23, warning such a step could constitute a crime against humanity.

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, formed in 2018 to analyse evidence of serious violations of international law, said it had received information that several individuals sentenced to death in closed-door trials last year could soon be executed.

Myanmar's secretive military government has made no announcement of possible executions and has not responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

The organisation did not elaborate on the information it had received, or provide details on who could be executed.

"Imposing a death sentence, or even a period of detention, on the basis of proceedings that do not satisfy the basic requirements of a fair trial may constitute one or more crimes against humanity or war crimes," Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Geneva-based organisation, said in a statement.

"The Mechanism is monitoring and collecting information on the cases against these individuals and others that involve the imposition of the death penalty in circumstances that might violate fundamental fair trial guarantees."

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The junta was widely condemned in 2022 when it executed four democracy activists for aiding 'terror acts' by a resistance movement, in what were the country's first executions in decades.

The military at the time defended the resumption of executions, calling it 'justice for the people' and brushing off international outrage, including from its closest neighbours. It said those executed received due process and were not activists, but killers who deserved their punishment.

Myanmar is locked in a civil war between the military on one side and on the other, resistance forces that have combined with established ethnic minority rebels to pose a major challenge to the army's rule.

The military government has ramped up killings and arrests in an apparent bid to silence opponents and recruit soldiers in an escalating conflict, with tens of thousands detained since its 2021 coup, a UN report said last week.

UN rights office spokesperson Liz Throssell last week told a press briefing that, according to credible sources, at least 1,853 people have died in custody since the coup, including 88 children.

Radio Free Asia and rights group the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights said anti-junta activists were the likely targets for execution. Reuters could not independently verify the information. 

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