• The UN Security Council denounced the execution of four inmates by the Myanmar junta.
• The statement won praise from a shadow government of exiled Myanmar politicians.
• It asked for the quick release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, achieving rare unanimity on the post-coup crisis.

The UN Security Council denounced the executions of four inmates by the Myanmar junta, winning praise Thursday from a shadow government of exiled Myanmar politicians.

On Wednesday, the Security Council issued a statement denouncing the executions — Myanmar’s first in decades — and asking for the quick release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, achieving a rare unanimity on the post-coup crisis.

The Security Council said, “The members of the Security Council condemned the military of Myanmar for killing opposition activists over the weekend.”

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

The declaration was approved by Russia and China, the junta’s two key allies that have traditionally covered it at the United Nations, as well as neighbouring India.

“Welcome UN Security Council condemning execution of democracy activists”, the “National Unity Government” (NUG) tweeted on its verified account.

The time had come for the council to “take concrete actions against the junta,” the statement continued.

The NUG, which is headed by parliamentarians from Aung San Suu Kyi’s expelled party, has been striving to overthrow the coup and has been designated by the junta as a “terrorist” organisation.

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The executions revealed Monday drew global criticism, fears that more would follow, and calls for sterner international measures against the junta.

Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democratic (NLD), and Kyaw Min Yu, also known as “Jimmy,” a senior democracy activist, were among the four executed.

Both were given the death penalty under anti-terrorism legislation.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen is the sole world leader to visit the junta since the coup.

The Cambodian prime minister had also asked Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the junta, to stop the killings.

Myanmar’s government has responded angrily to worldwide criticism of its use of the death penalty, claiming that the four killed convicts “deserved many death sentences.”

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