The homes of recently executed pro-democracy activists Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw were attacked on Wednesday by mobs of pro-regime thugs who denounced the two men for their anti-junta activities.
The apartment of Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw’s parents in Bo Aung Kyaw Street in downtown Yangon was pelted with stones and other projectiles by nearly a dozen junta-backed thugs on Wednesday afternoon. They cursed the executed activist’s parents.
In a video shared by pro-junta groups they can be seen hurling projectiles at the apartment and condemning the lawmaker’s mother, Daw Khin Win May, for telling the media she was proud of her son following his execution.
She confirmed to The Irrawaddy that their apartment was under attack.
The regime executed Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, another democracy activist, Ko Jimmy, and two other men during the weekend after sentencing them to death under the counter-terrorism law for masterminding the armed struggle against the regime and being involved in anti-junta activities. The world has condemned the hangings.
On Wednesday, pro-regime Telegram channels said “people against of violence” perpetrated the attack and shared the video online.
A mob also gathered in front of the house of the late Ko Jimmy in Yangon’s Insein Township on Wednesday, hurling stones at the building while denouncing him for his anti-regime activism.
Pro-junta groups on social media shared a video of the attack and called it “a demonstration by people who want peace and against violence.”
The attacks came one day after the regime’s spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said at a press conference that those executed were not democracy activists, but killers deserving of their punishment.
“They have committed crimes for which they should have been given death sentences many times,” said Zaw Min Tun.
In response to the international condemnations of the executions, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that it protested “in the strongest terms on the statements issued by certain countries and regional/international organizations.”
“The Ministry cautions that such concerns and criticisms on the Myanmar government’s legal actions could be tantamount to interfering the internal affairs of the country and indirectly abetting terrorism,” it said.
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