Rights Groups Warn of More Torture, Executions in Myanmar as Martial Law Spreads & Is Extended

VOA Report

Rights groups are warning of a likely rise in arbitrary arrests, torture and executions by Myanmar’s military regime after the junta’s move last week to place swaths of the country that are home to millions of people under martial law.

The junta declared martial law in 37 of Myanmar’s 330 townships on February 2, a day after marking the two-year anniversary of the military’s overthrow of a democratically elected government, by extending emergency rule across the country for six more months.

It adds to the 12 townships the junta placed under martial law in the months that followed the February 2021 coup, mostly in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s two largest cities.

Martial law puts all police, judicial and administrative activity in the townships in the hands of regional military commanders, who can launch opaque military tribunals into 23 offenses, from spreading “false news” to high treason. According to the announcement in state media, sentences can include indefinite prison terms and death, with no appeals except in cases of capital punishment.

The announcement said the tougher rules were needed “to exercise more effective undertakings for ensuring security, the rule of law and local peace and tranquillity.”

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