According to an information officer of her National League for Democracy party, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was fired by the army in a coup, was charged on Wednesday with an obscure violation of the illegal import of at least ten walkie -talkies. The offense can be punished with up to three years in prison.
The court preservation order, which was regulated by officials of the party that ruled Myanmar until the putsch Monday, was dated on the day of the coup and authorizes Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention for 15 days. The document states that soldiers who searched her villa in Naypyidaw, the capital, docked various pieces of communications equipment that were brought to the country without proper paperwork.
It was a bizarre post after a busy 48 hours in which the army put the country’s most popular leader under house arrest again and extinguished the hope that the Southeast Asian nation could one day serve as a beacon of democracy in a world that usury with increasing authoritarianism.
The coup has an elected government that, during its five-year term, received two resounding mandates, most recently in the general election last November.
As the foregoing premise progressed, the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades before ending its brief experiment in democracy, made use of the well-known playbook of dictatorship: the cessation of the Internet service, the suspension of flights, and detention of his critics. Apart from me. Aung San Suu Kyi, were the most faithful ministers, Buddhist monks, writers, activists and a filmmaker on the list of those summarized.
Yet, in the astonishing silence that followed the army attack, few soldiers patrolled the streets. By Monday night, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was back in her villa in Naypyidaw, rather than staying in one of the infamous prison cells in the country. There was no further mass arrest, and the internet came online again.
Activists on Tuesday staged small-scale civil disobedience campaigns, beating pots and pans or hitting their car horns to protest the coup. Dozens of workers at one mobile network stop objecting to their employer’s military links. And doctors in one hospital showed up together, each with three fingers in a provocative salute from the ‘Hunger Games’ movies. The gesture became a symbol of the protest for democracy in neighboring Thailand, where rumors of a coup also erupted.
The indictment against Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who served a total of 15 years in house arrest before the generals released her in 2010, reflected previous allegations of esoteric legal crimes. In one case, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi had her imprisonment extended because an American man swam unannounced to her villa on the shore, violating the conditions of her imprisonment.
But if such crimes seem absurd, they have real consequences. Together with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi is President U Win Myint, one of her political acolytes who was also detained on Monday, issued a detention order for violating emergency regulations for coronavirus. The National League for Democracy Information Officer said he greeted a car full of supporters during the election campaign last year.
If I am found guilty, Mr. Win Myint also gets three years in prison. Keeping a criminal record could prevent him from returning to the presidency.
The United Nations Security Council, which convened an emergency meeting on Myanmar on Tuesday, did not want to issue a statement condemning the coup, with China and Russia in opposition.
Myanmar’s army, known as the Tatmadaw, held its first coup in 1962, a bloody exercise that paved the way for nearly five decades of direct iron fist. Me. Aung San Suu Kyi and the leading lights of her National League for Democracy were locked up during what was to be their political head.
The generals ordered the massacre of protesters for pro-democracy and sent their soldiers to remove members of ethnic minority groups from their countries. Even when the junta gave a civilian administration some space to function, it ensured that the military would still control a large part of the economic and political sphere.
The confirmation of the charge against me. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her peaceful resistance to the military, escaped on Wednesday amid a whirlwind of rumors. Early in the afternoon, National League for Democracy lawmakers traded junk information, even though they were themselves under military arrest.
One rumor has it that she will be charged with high treason, a crime punishable by death. Another version says she is accused of election fraud. No one guessed that her alleged sin would involve walkie-talkies.
In a statement released Tuesday by Army Chief of Staff Minor Min Aung Hlaing, Tatmadaw said he had acted in the best interests of the people of Myanmar.
“During successive periods, the Myanmar Tatmadaw has been pursuing the motto ‘People are the parents’ when it comes to the people,” the statement read, insisting that mass electoral fraud was forced during the November election to act. a coup.
The National League for Democracy, which oversaw the country’s election commission, dismissed Tatmadaw’s accusation that voter manipulation had led to a poor performance by the military.
On Wednesday, lawmakers from the National League for Democracy, who were confined to their living quarters by soldiers, issued a statement saying they were still holding Mr. Win supports Myint as president. They rejected proposals that they be relieved of their legislative duties. The national assembly was supposed to convene for the first time since the November election on the day of the coup.
“Stop the intervention actions,” lawmakers warned the Tatmadaw. It seems two days too late as a warning.