Courts in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced 14 members of the opposition National League for Democracy party to lengthy prison terms, bringing to more than 50 the number of pro-democracy activists jailed his week.
The UN, Western nations and human rights groups expressed concern after sentences of 65 years each were given to 14 activists on Tuesday. They included members of the 88 Generation Students group who played prominent roles ahead of mass pro-democracy protests that were violently crushed last year.
“It’s no secret that Burma’s military rulers show no respect for law, but these last few weeks show a more concentrated crackdown on dissent clearly aimed at intimidating the population,” said Elaine Pearson of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“These peaceful activists should not be on trial in the first place, let alone thrown in prison for years after unfair trials,” Pearson said.
At least 14 National League for Democracy members were given prison sentences ranging from two-and-a-half years to 16 years in different courts on Friday, party spokesman Nyan Win said.
More than 50 people, including 30 NLD party members, were given long sentences, he said. Many were arrested in connection with protests against economic hardship and monk-led pro-democracy demonstrations late last year.
Nine Buddhist monks were given six to eight-year jail terms this week, Nyan Win said.
The army used force last December to quash the demonstrations.
According to UN estimates, at least 31 people were killed and thousands of protesters detained. Many fled the country or went underground.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS