UN Security Council Condemns Myanmar Executions

FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
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UN Security Council Condemns Myanmar Executions

FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo, File)

The UN Security Council has condemned the Myanmar junta's execution of four prisoners, drawing praise Thursday from a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers.

In a rare consensus on the post-coup crisis, the Security Council on Wednesday released a statement condemning the executions -- Myanmar's first in decades -- and calling for the immediate release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, AFP said.

"The members of the Security Council condemned the Myanmar military’s execution of opposition activists over the weekend," the Council said.

"They recalled the Secretary-General's statement of 25 July 2022 and echoed his call for the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained prisoners."

The statement was endorsed by Russia and China -- the junta's two major allies that have previously shielded it at the UN -- as well as neighboring India.

"Welcome UN Security Council condemning execution of democracy activists", said the "National Unity Government" (NUG) on a verified Twitter account.

It was time for the council to "take concrete actions against the junta, it added.

The NUG -- dominated by lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted party -- has been working to topple the coup and been declared a "terrorist" organization by the junta.

The executions announced Monday sparked condemnation from around the globe, heightened fears that more will follow and prompted calls for sterner international measures against the already-isolated junta.

Among the four executed were Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu -- better known as "Jimmy".

Both were sentenced to death under anti-terrorism laws.

The junta is increasingly isolated on the world stage, with Cambodian leader Hun Sen the only head of state to have visited since the coup that plunged the country into turmoil.

The Cambodian PM had also made a personal request to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing not to go ahead with the executions.

Myanmar's junta has lashed out against international condemnation of its use of capital punishment, saying the four executed prisoners "deserved many death sentences".



ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.