UN Condemns Myanmar Junta Over 11 Student Death Sentences

Myanmar’s military-installed government has sentenced seven university students to death behind closed doors on this week, and four more were reportedly sentenced on Thursday, bringing the total of death sentences to 139.

High Commissioner Volker Türk said yesterday the military’s secret courts violate fair trial principles and judicial independence and impartiality. “Myanmar’s Military courts have consistently failed to uphold due process or fair trial transparency.”

The Myanmar military Junta overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2013. The army’s action sparked widespread peaceful protests that were quashed with lethal force, triggering armed resistance that some U.N. experts call civil war.

Mr. Türk said the military-installed government has arrested 16,500 opponents of the takeover, including 1,700 convicted in secret courts without lawyers.

The Students’ Union of Dagon University in Yangon, the country’s largest city, announced Thursday on Facebook that seven students between 18 and 24 were sentenced to death Wednesday by a military court in Yangon’s Insein Prison.

An executive member of the Dagon University Students’ Union told AP that the seven were convicted of murder for allegedly shooting a bank branch manager in April.

In late July, the government executed four political activists, the first in three decades.

Western nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations condemned the hangings. The Myanmar military government has not implemented a five-point plan to defuse the crisis.

“By using death sentences as a political tool to crush opposition, the Myanmar military confirms its disdain for ASEAN and the international community’s efforts to end violence and create the conditions for a political dialogue,” Türk said.