Jersey City, N.J. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement in reaction to the Burmese military’s execution of four democracy activists:
“This weekend’s executions of democracy activists Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy), Phyo Zeyaw Thaw, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw — the first such executions in Burma since the dark days of 1988 — serve as yet another painful reminder of the vile depredations of the military junta in Burma.
“The ongoing crisis in Burma represents a clear threat to regional and international stability, and responsible members of the international community must step up to demonstrate that the junta’s actions will come at a cost — not to the people of Burma, whose suffering we must continue to try to alleviate, but to the military and its leadership itself. China and Russia must cease enabling the military junta’s apparently bottomless thirst for violence and revenge.
“As I raised during the recent US-ASEAN Special Summit, Burma’s ASEAN neighbors must take the lead, and the Biden administration must exercise the authorities that Congress has already granted it to impose additional targeted sanctions on the Napiydaw regime – including on Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). We cannot stand idly by as we collectively watch the Tatmadaw follow through on its threats to brutally, mercilessly, barbarically rape, torture and kill the people of Burma.”
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