Myanmar’s army took power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League Party (NLD) this morning.
The army said it carried out the arrests in response to ‘election fraud’, which handed over power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and declared a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement to a military television station. is owned.
The generals made their move hours before parliament had to sit down for the first time since the NLD’s big victory in an election on November 8, considered a referendum on Suu Kyi’s democratic government.
Telephone lines to the capital Naypyitaw and the main commercial center of Yangon were inaccessible, and state television went off the air. People rushed to the markets in Yangon to store food and supplies, while others lined up at ATMs to withdraw cash.
Soldiers took up positions at Yangon City Hall and mobile internet data and telephone services in the NLD fortress were disrupted, residents said. The internet connection has also dropped dramatically, the monitoring service NetBlocks said.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar president Win Myint and other NLD leaders were ‘taken’ in the early hours of the morning, NLD spokesperson Myo Nyunt told Reuters by telephone.
“I want to tell our people that they should not react in a hurry and want them to act according to the law,” he said, adding that he expected to be arrested himself. Reuters could therefore not contact him.
A video posted by one MP on Facebook shows the arrest of another lawmaker, Pa Pa Han.
In the video, her husband pleads for men to stand outside the gate in military clothing. A young child can be seen clinging to his chest and crying.
The arrest comes after days of mounting tensions between the civilian government and the military that raised fears of a coup in the aftermath of the election.
Suu Kyi’s party won 83% of the vote in only the second election since a military junta agreed to share power in 2011.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been informed of the arrests and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken had called for the leaders to be released.
“The United States stands with the people of Burma in their pursuit of democracy, freedom, peace and development. The army must reverse this action immediately, “he said in a statement with an alternative name for Myanmar.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the detention of Suu Kyi and other political leaders and “insisted that the military leadership respect the will of the people of Myanmar,” a UN spokesman said.
The Australian government has said it is “very concerned about reports that the Myanmar army is trying to regain control of Myanmar.”
Japan has said it is monitoring the situation and has no plans to withdraw Japanese citizens from Myanmar, while India’s foreign ministry has expressed deep concern over the coup.
Singapore has ‘serious’ concerns about the unfolding situation in Myanmar and has urged all parties to work towards a peaceful outcome, the foreign ministry said.
Approach to coup d’etat
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, 75, came to power after a 2015 election victory that followed decades of house arrest in a battle for democracy with the junta from Myanmar turning her into an international icon.
Her international position was damaged after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled military operations in 2017 for refuge from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, but she remains very popular at home.
Political tensions skyrocketed last week when a military spokesman refused to rule out a coup before the new parliament convened on Monday, and military chief Min Aung Hlaing called for the constitution to be repealed.
Tanks were deployed in some streets last week and pro-military demonstrations took place in some cities before the first assembly of parliament.
Myanmar’s Electoral Commission rejected the army’s allegations of vote fraud.
The country’s constitution, published in 2008 after decades of military rule, retains 25% of the seats in parliament for the army and control of three key ministries in Suu Kyi’s government.
In its statement on the state of emergency, the military cited the election commission’s failure to address voter turnout complaints, its refusal to agree to a request to postpone new parliamentary sessions and protests by groups who were unhappy about the election. .
“Unless this problem is resolved, it will hinder the path to democracy and therefore must be resolved by law,” the statement said, referring to an emergency provision in the constitution if national sovereignty is threatened.
Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama, who has forged close ties with Suu Kyi, described the military takeover as a serious blow to democracy in the region.
“If true, it’s a major setback – not just for democracy in Myanmar, but for American interests as well. It is once again a reminder that the prolonged absence of credible and steady involvement of the US in the region has encouraged anti-democratic forces, ‘he said.
Human Rights Watch’s director of advocacy in Asia, John Sifton, criticized the White House’s initial response as ‘disappointingly weak’ and called for a more effective international response.
“The US needs to work with allies to speak more clearly, coherently, in terms of ultimatums, to inform the Myanmar army of the specific consequences that will occur if their coup is not reversed,” he said.