Junta court sentences deposed lawmaker who denounced resistance to 20 years

“They treat me very warmly, like a brother. And I’m very grateful for that.” These were the words Thet Paing Soe—an ousted regional elected official—used to refer to the Myanmar military in 2022 at a public ceremony held to recognise the “surrender” of resistance members. In addition to representing Ngapudaw Township in the Ayeyarwady regional parliament, Thet Paing Soe had been an officer of the Ngapudaw People’s Defence Forces—an armed anti-junta resistance group—before defecting to the side of the military. “I don’t want any more bloodshed,” he continued. “I don’t want to spread hate anymore.” Despite this renunciation of support for the anti-coup resistance, military authorities sentenced Thet Paing Soe to 22 years in prison in late December of 2023. Thet Paing Soe went into hiding when the coup regime issued an arrest warrant for him, among many elected officials, after seizing power in 2021. Unable to find him, the military had detained his wife Nang Yu Thein and 10-month-old daughter Su Myat Paing in April of 2022. He next reappeared in public at the ceremony for surrendering resistance members, organised by the general administration department within the military-controlled ministry of home affairs and held in Kyonpyaw, Ayeyarwady Region on July 21 of 2022. According to spokespersons for the military, Thet Paing Soe was one of five civilians who publicly surrendered to the military regime at the Kyonpyaw ceremony. Footage of the ceremony showing Thet Paing Soe denouncing the anti-junta resistance soon went viral on social media, giving the appearance of a deliberate effort by the military to circulate it as propaganda. “The military also loves the country,” Thet Paing Soe said in the notorious video clip. In early 2023, the military arrested Thet Paing Soe on terrorism charges, reportedly detaining him at a police station after summoning him to sign a pledge as a condition for clearing his record. A district-level court in Pathein sentenced him to 22 years in prison in late December. “This is just like a mother convincing her child to come closer by promising not to beat him, then beating him when he comes. But we are not children, and as responsible adults we should know enough to use our reason and take the appropriate lesson from this,” said an ousted member of the Ayeyarwady regional parliament and former acquaintance of Thet Paing Soe. Military regime officials have publicly professed an intent to show leniency towards opponents in hiding, such as participants in the civil disobedience movement that formed in 2021 to organise strikes resisting the coup. Seeing the outcome for Thet Paing Soe has only reinforced people’s suspicions that the military is setting a trap, said the ousted lawmaker, who is currently in hiding. Myanmar’s military dictators have a longstanding reputation for breaking their word. The military held onto power in Myanmar for two more decades after Sen.-Gen. Saw Maung—chair of the regime between 1988 and 1992—vowed during countrywide protests that the military would hold elections, transfer power peacefully to an elected government, and “return to the barracks.” The same generals who said the military would “never turn back” during the general election of 2010 gave their approval and encouragement to Sen.-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to depose the elected National League for Democracy government a decade later. “It would be more than foolish for anyone to keep trusting a military that has never played fair with the public throughout its history,” another ousted legislator said.

Junta court sentences deposed lawmaker who denounced resistance to 20 years

Ousted regional legislator Thet Paing Soe defected to the side of the military in a recorded public ceremony in 2022, only to be arrested and charged with terrorism within less than a year

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