YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar authorities have accused the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, of possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies, her allies said Wednesday, a move that overthrows the generals who overturn her legal grounds has, give to keep her for two weeks.
The charge came to light two days after Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest, and it appears to be an attempt to lend a legal veneer to her detention, although the generals have kept her and others locked up for years.
The military announced on Monday that it would take power for one year – accusing the Suu Kyi government of failing to investigate allegations of voter fraud in recent elections. Suu Kyi’s party swept the vote, and the military-backed party fared poorly.
National League for Democracy spokesman Kyi Toe confirmed the charge against Suu Kyi, who had been sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison. He also said the country’s ousted president, Win Myint, was charged with violating the Natural Disaster Management Act. A leaked indictment from February 1 indicates that it can be held until February 15.
“It was clear that the military would seek some legal action against the leaders of the National League for Democracy and especially Aung San Suu Kyi to legalize what they were trying to do,” said Larry Jagan, an independent analyst at Myanmar. matters. “And it’s really a power grab.”
Police and court officials in the capital Naypyitaw could not be contacted immediately.
At the same time as the authorities worked to detain Suu Kyi, hundreds of lawmakers who were forced to stay with the government after the coup were told on Wednesday to leave the capital within 24 hours and go home, a member of parliament said. said. of Suu Kyi’s party which is among the group. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared attracting the army’s attention.
The coup was a dramatic setback for Myanmar, which made progress toward democracy, and emphasized the extent to which the generals eventually retained control of the Southeast Asian country.
In response to the coup, Suu Kyi party called for violent resistance, and numerous people in Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, hit car horns on Tuesday night and hit pots and pans. Supporters of the army also held demonstrations.
Medical workers also stated that they would not work for the new military government in protest against the coup at a time when the country is fighting a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with a dangerously inadequate health system. Photos were shared on social media showing health workers pinned to their clothes with red ribbons or holding printed photos of red ribbons.
There were also protests in neighboring Thailand, where Khin Maung Soo, a citizen of Myanmar, said on Wednesday that he was protesting to “show the world that we are not happy with what happened”.
He added: “We want the whole world to help us too.”
The takeover was a shocking drop in power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize winner who lived under house arrest for many years when she tried to push her country towards democracy and when she became a de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.
Suu Kyi was a fierce critic of the military during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she worked with the generals and even defended their oppression against Rohingya Muslims and damaged her international reputation.
The international community, which has enthusiastically supported Myanmar’s emerging democracy, is now facing a test. The United States has threatened sanctions, calling the takeover a coup. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday but did not take any action.
The foreign ministers of the group of 7 leading industrialized nations issued a statement on Wednesday calling for Suu Kyi and others to be released and for power to be restored to the democratically elected government. In an interview on Washington Post Live, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN would work with key international players “to put pressure on Myanmar to ensure that this coup fails.”
While in power, the new leader of Myanmar said the military government planned to investigate alleged fraud in last year’s election. Senior Genl. Min Aung Hlaing announced the move on Tuesday during the first meeting of his new government in the capital, the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar said.
While the military cited the government’s failure to properly investigate the allegations of electoral irregularities as one of the reasons for the coup, the state union election commission said there were no significant problems with the vote.
Analysts have said that the struggling victory of Suu Kyi’s party may have surprised the military – and let the generals concerned know that it has too much power, although the constitution has been carefully written to ensure that the army retains significant control, among other things. with an assignment. of 25% of the seats in parliament.
Min Aung Hlaing also said that the COVID-19 controls imposed on Suu Kyi’s government would be continued.
Myanmar has confirmed more than 140,600 cases, including 3,100 deaths. According to UN surveys, its health infrastructure is one of the weakest in Asia.
A statement issued on Wednesday in the name of the Suu Kyi party’s executive said on Tuesday that authorities had begun looting the party’s offices in Mandalay and other states and regions and seizing documents and laptops. to lie.
The statement on the Facebook page of party spokesperson Kyi Toe said that locks at several offices were broken. It denounced the raids as illegal and demanded that they stop.
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Associated Press authors Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct that the charge against Suu Kyi has a maximum sentence of three years, not two.