The execution of the four pro-democracy activists, who were sentenced to death in secretive trials, marks the first executions in Burma in over 30 years. Kyaw Min Yu was the prominent pro-democracy activist also known as Ko Jimmy. He was a student leader in the 1988 uprising, spent many years as a political prisoner. Also executed was Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former rapper who was a founding member of Generation Wave, an anti-military youth-led movement, and became a lawmaker in Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. The two other men executed Saturday were were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners says they were involved in the resistance protest movement since the 2021 coup, like many other Burmese.
You know, two of the executed, I met them, and I consider them my younger comrades. You know, Jimmy, or Kyaw Min Yu, had been involved since 1988, when he was only 19 years old. And Zeya Thaw is in his mid-forties and a well-known hip-hop artist and a committed supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership. And although we had differences of opinion about her leadership or NLD, but nonetheless, you know, I felt the pain.
Also, the other two were younger-generation comrade brothers. They were accused of killing someone who was credibly accused of being a informer for the military.
So, these are, you know, the four dissidents that were barbarically executed on Saturday. The families have not been given any indication in what manners they were executed, or,
— source democracynow.org | Jul 26, 2022
