Aung San Suu Kyi Ruling Social gathering Leaders Arrested in Sweeping Myanmar Navy Crackdown Radio Free Asia

Myanmar’s navy has arrested chief Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation’s president, and state ministers in an obvious coup in opposition to the ruling Nationwide League for Democracy authorities on early Monday morning following rising tensions over disputed 2020 election outcomes, an NLD spokesman mentioned.

“We now have heard that the navy has been arresting folks from our social gathering, and that it has detained the State Counselor and the President,” NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt informed RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Picked up in detentions launched hours earlier than the brand new parliament was slated to convene Feb. 1 had been State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and the state ministers from the area of Yangon, the nation’s largest metropolis, and Shan, Kayin, and Mon states, he mentioned.

“Han Thar Myint and Thein Lwin, members of the NLD CEC are detained, too. I’m ready for his or her arrest now,” mentioned Myo Nyunt, referring to the social gathering’s Central Government Committee. He didn’t elaborate on the grounds for the arrests.

”They may give the excuse that they’ve arrested us over the alleged voting fraud case. We would like every little thing to be consistent with the legislation. Since they’re an armed group, they will do no matter they need,” the spokesman added.

There was no speedy assertion from the navy, whereas the quantity and whereabouts of the detained politicians weren’t instantly clear.

The navy, which had known as on the federal government to postpone the convening of parliament and refused to rule out the potential for a coup in response to allegations of election fraud, additionally arrested MPs, political activists and scholar leaders, sources informed RFA. 

“I’m detained,” Mya Aye, a 1988 democracy motion activist and chief of the group Federal Democratic Forces, posted on his Fb a couple of minutes earlier than his account was deactivated at daybreak on Monday.

Monday’s detentions adopted a string of veiled threats of a coup by Myanmar’s navy final week over claims of voting fraud within the Nov. 8 elections, which the NLD swept in an consequence confirmed by electoral authorities.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a 75-year-old Nobel laureate who has spent practically 20 years below home arrest, was set to launch her second five-year time period in late March. The NLD received 396 parliamentary seats in November, whereas the army-affiliated Union Solidarity and Growth Social gathering (USDP), took solely 33 seats.

The navy and the USDP have contended for weeks that there was widespread voter fraud and have elevated stress on the Union Election Fee (UEC) to research. Neither the navy nor the USDP have submitted any proof of precise voter fraud, however they’ve raised questions on outdated voter lists and different issues.

In response to speak a few coup, the UEC issued a press release on Thursday insisting that elections had been devoid of fraud as alleged by the navy, regardless of some voter record errors which it mentioned it could examine.

Intervention by the navy is troubling to many in Myanmar, which endured brutal, corrupt navy rule and worldwide pariah standing from 1962 to 2011, when it started a transition to democratic rule.

Former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell, who was Washington’s envoy when Myanmar started its transition from a long time of junta rule in 2012, known as for the speedy restoration of democracy.

“Democracy in Myanmar should be restored instantly with out situations for good of nation. Myanmar navy’s detention/arrest of civilian management is indefensible, regardless of the pretext, and should earn international condemnation,” Mitchell, now president of the Nationwide Democratic Institute, wrote on Twitter.

“The doorways simply opened to a really completely different future,” mentioned Thant Myint-U of the NGO Burma Marketing campaign UK.  “I’ve a sinking feeling that nobody will actually have the ability to management what comes subsequent.”

The obvious coup “must be met with the strongest worldwide response. The navy have to be made to know that they’ve made a significant miscalculation in pondering they will get away with this,” he mentioned on Twitter.

 Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Paul Eckert.