When Burmese-Australian Steven Han read about a military truck driving through a crowd of pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar over the weekend he felt angry and helpless.
This feeling grew as the world learned on Monday that Myanmar's deposed democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former president Win Myint had been sentenced to at least two years in detention.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar ordered that Ms Suu Kyi and Mr Wyint would spend four years in detention on charges of incitement and breaching COVID-19 restrictions.
These charges were later reduced to two years in a partial pardon.
“It’s a feeling of injustice,” Mr Han told SBS News.
“There has been a lot of torture, arbitrary arrests and the military car ramming into protesters just shows what kind of regime they are.
“If it happened in any other country it would be considered a terrorist act.”
There have been frequent protests in Myanmar since the military seized control on 1 February following a general election in which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won by a landslide.
Mr Han says he's nervous for his family and friends back home in Myanmar. Source: Supplied
The military junta has brutally suppressed protests, using water cannons and firing rubber bullets and live ammunition into crowds.
Mr Han said under this turbulent political climate, he was worried about his friends and family back home in Myanmar.
“At any point, anyone can be detained and you don't know what's going to happen to people when they get arrested," he said.
"There are instances where people get detained and then their family members are asked to collect the body.
“I cannot protect my family or my friends from facing this kind of atrocity.”
Dr Tun-Aung Shwe, the Australian representative of the National Unity Government of Myanmar, was in his final year of medical training when Ms Suu Kyi emerged as a national democracy figure in 1988.
Dr Tun-Aung Shwe, the Australian representative of the National Unity Government of Myanmar. Source: Supplied
Ms Suu Kyi often visited Dr Shwe’s family home as his father, Tim Shwe was a founding member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and a part of the “Intellectuals Group” which she led.
His father was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for his role in the political movement during the 1990 election. Six years later, he died in Insein prison.
Dr Shwe said all these years later, the military junta in Myanmar is continuing to act in a “repressive” and “anti-democratic” manner.
“I feel really bad and very bad for Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint,” Dr Shwe told SBS News.
“The Myanmar military junta is showing their strong desire to control the country without respecting people’s desires to restore democracy.
“The judicial system in Myanmar is not a judicial system. It is a repressive mechanism for the military junta.”
Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. But her reputation was damaged when she fronted the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over allegations of genocide against the country's Rohingya Muslim population.
Dr Shwe says the Australian government should formally recognise the exiled National Unity Government. Source: Supplied
At the ICJ, Ms Suu Skyi insisted in 2019 that the years-long campaign of atrocities against the Rohingya had been exaggerated and misconstrued. Instead of using the word “Rohingya", she adhered to her government’s stance that no such ethnic group exists.
“Genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis,” she said on the second day of a three-day hearing.
“Can there be genocidal intent on the part of the state that actively investigates, prosecutes and punishes soldiers and officers, who are accused of wrongdoing? Although the focus here is on members of the military, I can assure you that appropriate action will be taken on civilian offenders, in line with due process.”
But Dr Shwe placed the blame squarely at the feet of the Myanmar military who he said brutally repressed and attacked the Rohingya people.
“Burning houses, killing people — including women and elderly people — [the military junta] were committing international crimes against humanity and war crimes,” he said.
“The ultimate thing was to destabilise the country. That is why [Ms Suu Kyi] had a balancing act with the country’s political agenda and the situation [in the country].”
Dr Shwe said he would like the Australian government to formally recognise the exiled National Unity Government as the legitimate ruling power of Myanmar.
“We can’t understand why the Australian government is silent on this matter,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Tuesday that "the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is deeply concerning.”
Aung Suu Kyi has been sentenced to two years in prison. Source: AP
"Australia continues to call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained in Myanmar, and for a return to the path of democratic transition as soon as possible,” they said.
"Australia has been a long standing supporter of Myanmar and its democratic transition."
But Mr Han said the Australian government could do more to hamper the influence of Myanmar’s military regime.
He said he’d like to see the Australian government take a more proactive approach, such as imposing targeted sanctions on generals in Myanmar.
“The international community shouldn’t ignore what's happening in Myanmar,” Mr Han said.
“We’ve been shouting and yelling about what’s happening for the past 10 months and now the coverage has died off quite significantly.
“Between [the military coup and now] a lot of people have died… been arbitrarily detained and tortured.”
SBS News has contacted the embassy of Myanmar in Canberra for comment.
