Myanmar’s military has staged a coup against the government – arresting de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the president, and other MPs in dawn raids.
Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were arrested early Monday, just hours before their newly-elected government was due to be sworn in, as tanks, soldiers and helicopters were deployed around the capital Naypyitaw.
The generals struck amid fears that Suu Kyi would use her new mandate – which saw her humiliate military-backed parties at a vote held last year – to reform the constitution and remove their strangle-hold on power.
Military leaders, who claim the vote was fraudulent, have now declared a year-long state of emergency, transferred all power to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, appointed Vice President Myint Swe – a former general – as acting president, and closed all banks until further notice.
General Hlaing was facing forced retirement from the military this year at age 65 and was thought to be eyeing a life in politics as a way to retain power. ‘He’s probably calculated now that… there is no electoral means by which he could stay in power,’ Myanmar expert Herve Lemahieu at Australia’s Lowy Institute said.
The military has claimed that fresh elections will be held within a year and that power will be transferred to whoever is the winner.
The NLD released a statement they said had been written by Suu Kyi before her arrest, which called for people ‘to protest against the coup’ while warning that generals want to ‘put the country back under a dictatorship’.
The US, UK, Japan and Australia were among those condemning the coup early Monday, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki pledged to ‘take action against those responsible’ while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson added: ‘The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released.’
China – which has been a long-term supporter of the military – urged all sides to ‘resolve their differences… to protect political and social stability’. (DailyMail)
