Fifty-seven months after former National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker Phyo Zeyar Thaw was unlawfully arrested and subsequently executed by Myanmar’s military junta, his wife has renewed calls for justice, condemning the regime for his enforced disappearance.
In an August 18 Facebook post, Daw Thazin Nyunt Aung marked 57 months since her husband was taken into custody on November 18, 2021, noting that the family has been denied any contact or official closure ever since.
“We have had no contact with him since the moment he was taken,” she wrote. “Those who carried out this unlawful arrest and disappearance must be held accountable and face justice for what they did. Those who remain silent in the face of injustice are complicit in that injustice.”
Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a hip-hop pioneer and co-founder of the pro-democracy youth organization Generation Wave, served as an NLD member of parliament before being ousted in the February 2021 military coup. Following his arrest in Yangon, a military tribunal sentenced him to death under the Counter-Terrorism Law.
On July 24, 2022, the regime announced that Phyo Zeyar Thaw had been executed alongside veteran democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu (widely known as Ko Jimmy), Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw at Yangon’s Insein Prison. The hangings—personally overseen by then-Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Major General Soe Htut—marked Myanmar’s first judicial executions in over three decades.
Despite announcing the executions, the military regime refused to return the victims' bodies to their families, leading relatives and human rights groups to treat the case as an ongoing enforced disappearance.
July 2026 marked four years since the executions, which drew fierce international condemnation, including from the United Nations.
“It has been four years since the Myanmar military unjustly executed Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw, Ko Jimmy, Ko Hla Myo Aung, and Ko Aung Thura Zaw,” Amnesty International said in a statement marking the anniversary. “Ko Zeyar Thaw and Ko Jimmy were well-known, prominent pro-democracy activists. The Myanmar military’s imposition of such a brutal punishment is extremely disheartening.”
Photo: Former National League for Democracy (NLD) MP U Phyo Zayar Thaw/ (Thazin Nyunt Aung)
