Tag Archives: Aung San Suu Kyi

Regional

Myanmar coup: Protesters face up to 20 years in prison under new law

Maravi Post Reporter
Myanmar protesters threatened

Myanmar’s military has warned anti-coup protesters across the country that they could face up to 20 years in prison if they obstruct the armed forces.

Long sentences and fines will also apply to those found to incite “hatred or contempt” towards the coup leaders, the military said.

The legal changes were announced as armoured vehicles appeared on the streets of several cities.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests in recent days.

The demonstrators are demanding the release from detention of their elected leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

On Monday, Ms Suu Kyi’s lawyer said she would be detained for a further two days.

She will then be tried via video link at a court in the capital Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday, Khin Maung Zaw added.

Ms Suu Kyi was rounded up with other members of the government on 1 February, but her detention was due to end on 15 February, according to Reuters news agency.

The charges against her include possession of unlawful communication devices – walkie-talkies used by her security staff.

Her party was elected in a resounding victory last November, but the military has alleged voter fraud without providing proof.

Malawi, Regional

Myanmar coup: Crowd gathers for second day of protests

Maravi Post Reporter
female protesters

More than 1,000 people have gathered in Myanmar’s main city, Yangon, for a second day of protests, nearly a week after the military seized power.

“We will move forward and keep demanding until we get democracy,” one protester, Myo Win, 37, told the AFP news agency.

Police trucks and officers in riot gear were stationed on the streets near Yangon University.

On Saturday, the military shut down the country’s internet connections.

Smaller demonstrations were also reported on Sunday morning in Mawlamine and Mandalay.

Elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, as does President Win Myint.

Human rights group Amnesty International called the internet shutdown “heinous and reckless” and warned it could put the people of Myanmar at risk of human rights violations.

The military has not commented. It temporarily blocked access to the internet following the coup on 1 February.

Politics, Regional

Myanmar coup: UN Secretary General Guterres urges world community to intervene

Maneno Chimulala

United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterreshas urged the world community to make sure Monday’s coup in Myanmar fails.

He told BBC that the reversal of elections is “unacceptable”, he said, and coup leaders must be made to understand this is no way to rule the country.

The UN Security Council is discussing a possible statement, but China is expected to block any form of words which condemns the coup.

The UN secretary general called for constitutional order to be re-established in Myanmar.

He said he hoped there would be unity in the Security Council on the matter.

“We’ll do everything we can to mobilise all the key actors of the international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails,” he said.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable to reverse the result of the elections and the will of the people.

“I hope that it’ll be possible to make the military in Myanmar understand that this is not the way to rule the country and this is not the way to move forward,” said Guterres as quoted by BBC.

Western countries have condemned the coup unreservedly, but efforts at the Security Council to reach a common position failed as China dissented.

 China is one of five permanent members with a right of veto in the council.

Beijing has long played a role of protecting the country from international scrutiny, and has warned since the coup that sanctions or international pressure will only make things worse.

Alongside Russia, it has repeatedly protected Myanmar from criticism at the UN over the military crackdown on the Muslim minority Rohingya population.

The elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained when the army seized power.

Police in Myanmar – also known as Burma – later filed several charges against Ms Suu Kyi, who has been remanded in custody until 15 February.

Neither Ms Suu Kyi nor deposed President Win Myint have been heard from since the takeover.

The coup, led by armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing, has seen the installation of an 11-member junta.

The military, which has declared a year-long state of emergency, sought to justify its action by alleging fraud in last November’s elections, which Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won decisively.

Facebook services in Myanmar were disrupted on Thursday amid reports the military had ordered telecom companies to block the social media platform.

The company confirmed the disruptions, urging “authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with their families and friends and access important information”.

Over the past days, activists had set up Facebook pages to co-ordinate opposition to the coup.

Politics, Regional

Myanmar coup: China blocks UN condemnation as protest grows

Maneno Chimulala

China has blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar.

According to BBC, the United Nations Security Council met on Tuesday but failed to agree on a joint statement after China did not support it.

A joint statement would have needed China’s support which holds veto power as a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council.

Ahead of the talks, the UN’s Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner had strongly condemned the military takeover which came after the army refused to accept the outcome of general elections held in November.

She said it was clear that “the recent outcome of the election was a landslide victory” for Ms Suu Kyi’s party.

The military took power in the south-east Asian nation on Monday after arresting political leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other lawmakers.

The coup leaders have since formed a supreme council which will sit above the cabinet.

In Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon though, signs of resistance and civil disobedience have been growing.

Why did China block the UN action?

“Through this foreign policy equivalent of gaslighting, China seems to be signalling its tacit support, if not emphatic endorsement, for the generals’ actions,” Myanmar expert Elliott Prasse-Freeman, of the National University of Singapore, told the BBC.

“China seems to be proceeding as if this is Myanmar’s ‘internal issue’ in which what we are observing is a ‘cabinet reshuffle,’ as China’s state media put it.”

While he thinks a UN statement would not have made an immediate difference, it would still serve as “a first step for cohering an international response. That appears to not be forthcoming”.

“Beijing’s stance on the situation is consistent with its overall scepticism of international intervention,” Sebastian Strangio, author and South East Asia editor at The Diplomat, told the BBC.

Over the past few days, China has warned that sanctions or international pressure would only make things worse in the country.

While China does benefit strategically from Myanmar’s alienation from the west, this does not mean that Beijing is happy with the coup, he cautions.

“They had a pretty good arrangement with the NLD and invested a lot to build a relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi. The return of the military actually means that China now has to deal with the institution in Myanmar that historically is the most suspicious of China’s intentions.”

Myanmar is a country of 54 million people in South East Asia which shares borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand and Laos.

It was ruled by an oppressive military government from 1962 to 2011, leading to international condemnation and sanctions. Aung San Suu Kyi spent years campaigning for democratic reforms.

A gradual liberalisation began in 2010, though the military still retained considerable influence. A government led by Ms Suu Kyi came to power after free elections in 2015.

But a deadly military crackdown two years later on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh and triggered a rift between Ms Suu Kyi and the international community.

She has remained popular at home and her party won again by a landslide in the November 2020 election. But the military have now stepped in to take control once more.

Source: www.bbc.com

Regional

Myanmar military seizes power, detains elected leader Suu Kyi

Maravi Post Reporter

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Myanmar’s military seized 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 for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids.

The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station.

A verified Facebook page for Suu Kyi’s party published comments it said had been written in anticipation of a coup and which quoted her as saying people should protest against the military takeover.

The coup derails years of Western-backed efforts to establish democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, where neighbouring China also has a powerful influence.

The generals made their move hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the NLD’s landslide win in a Nov. 8 general election viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic rule.

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Phone and internet connections in the capital, Naypyitaw, and the main commercial centre of Yangon were disrupted and state television went off air after the NLD leaders were detained.

Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other NLD leaders were “taken” in the early hours of the morning, NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone. Reuters was subsequently unable to contact him.

A video posted to Facebook by one MP appeared to show the arrest of another, regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han.

In the video, her husband pleads with men in military garb standing outside the gate. A young child can be seen clinging to his chest and wailing.

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Troops and riot police stood by in Yangon where residents rushed to markets to stock up on supplies and others lined up at ATMs to withdraw cash. Banks subsequently suspended services due to poor internet connections.

The detentions came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the military 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 pre-written statement uploaded on an NLD Facebook page quoted Suu Kyi as saying such army actions would put Myanmar “back under a dictatorship”.

“I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military,” it quoted her as saying. Reuters was unable to reach any NLD officials to confirm the veracity of the statement.

Supporters of the military celebrated the coup, parading through Yangon in pickup trucks and waving national flags but democracy activists were horrified.

“Our country was a bird that was just learning to fly. Now the army broke our wings,” student activist Si Thu Tun said.

NLD voters were angry.

“The NLD is the government we voted for. If they’re unhappy with the result, they can call another election. A coup isn’t acceptable,” said one woman, who declined to be identified, whose husband works for the military.

Senior NLD leader Win Htein said in a Facebook post the army chief’s takeover demonstrated his ambition rather than concern for the country.

‘POTENTIAL FOR UNREST’

Condemnation of the coup came from Australia, Britain, the European Union, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. China called on all sides to respect the constitution and uphold stability.

The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the arrests, while the U.S. embassy in Yangon issued an alert warning U.S. citizens there of the “potential for civil and political unrest”.

“The United States stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace, and development. The military must reverse these actions immediately,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the coup and the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and others.

“The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released,” he said on Twitter.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the detentions and urged the military to respect the will of the people, a spokesman said.

European Council President Charles Michel said all those detained must be released and the outcome of the election respected.

Japan said it had long supported democracy in Myanmar and opposed any reversal of that process. It also called for the release of Suu Kyi and others.

‘KILLING DEMOCRACY’

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, 75, came to power after a 2015 election win that followed decades of house arrest and struggle against the military, which seized power in a 1962 coup and stamped out all dissent for decades.

While still hugely popular at home, her international reputation was damaged after she failed to stop the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in 2017.

Rohingya refugees in neighbouring Bangladesh also condemned the takeover.

“We Rohingya community strongly condemn this heinous attempt to kill democracy,” Rohingya leader Dil Mohammed told Reuters by phone.

The November vote faced some criticism in the West for disenfranchising some ethnic groups including Rohingya but the election commission rejected military complaints of fraud.

In its statement declaring the emergency, the military cited the failure of the commission to address complaints over voter lists, its refusal to agree to postpone new parliamentary sessions and protests by groups unhappy with the vote.

“Unless this problem is resolved, it will obstruct the path to democracy and it must therefore be resolved according to the law,” the military said, citing an emergency provision in the constitution in the event sovereignty is threatened.

Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama, who fostered close ties with Suu Kyi, described the takeover as a blow to democracy in the region.

“It’s yet another reminder that the extended absence of credible and steady U.S. engagement in the region has emboldened anti-democratic forces,” he said.

Human Rights Watch’s Asia advocacy director John Sifton, criticised the initial White House response as “disappointingly weak” and urged a more concerted international reaction “to put the Myanmar military on notice of the specific consequences that will occur if their coup is not reversed”.

Source: Reuters

Source

Politics, Regional

Myanmar military seizes control and detains de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Maneno Chimulala
Military Chief Min Aung Hlaing is now in power

Myanmar’s military has taken control of the country after detaining de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians in the early hours.

Military TV said a state of emergency had been declared for one year and power transferred.

The coup comes after tensions rose between the civilian government and the military following a disputed election.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, was ruled by the military until democratic reforms began in 2011.

The military said on Monday it was handing power to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing because of “election fraud”.

Soldiers are on the streets of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, and the main city, Yangon.

In November’s election, Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won enough seats to form a government.

Meanwhile, the Unites States has condemned the coup, saying Washington “opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition”.