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Naypyitaw, Myanmar – Myanmar’s military-run TV station said on Monday that the military had taken control of the country for a year, after many of the country’s top political leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, were arrested. The takeover was quickly condemned as a coup by European leaders, while the newly sworn-in administration of President Joe Biden in Washington expressed “grave concern”.
CBS News Asia correspondent Ramy Inocencio managed to make contact with a friend in the country’s largest city, Yangon, despite most lines of communication cut by the military. The friend told Inocencio that people were panicking buying food and rushing to ATMs to try and withdraw their money as military leaders stopped all flights in the country and shut down banks.
A Myanmar military-owned Myawaddy TV presenter announced the takeover and cited a section of the military-drafted constitution that allows the military to take control in a national emergency. He said the takeover was in part due to the government’s inability to follow through on allegations of electoral fraud by the military in last November’s election and its inability to postpone the election due to the coronavirus crisis.
The military has said it will hold a new election after the state of emergency ends and hand power to the winner. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won a landslide victory in the general election last November, humiliating the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The military TV report said the Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, would be in charge of the country, while Vice President Myint Swe would be elevated to the post of interim president. Myint Swe is a former general known to have led a brutal crackdown on Buddhist monks in 2007. He is a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe.
The announcements and declaration of a state of emergency followed days of concern over the threat of a military coup – and military denials that it would make one – and took place on morning when the new session of the country’s parliament was due to begin.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy urged the people of Myanmar to oppose Monday’s “coup” and any return to “military dictatorship”. The statement posted on Suu Kyi’s Facebook page said the military’s actions were unjustified and went against the constitution and the will of the voters.
This takeover is a brutal reversal of the partial but significant progress towards democracy that Myanmar has made in recent years after five decades of military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It would also be a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, who led the fight for democracy. despite years of house arrest and won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
“Serious concern and alarm”
The military’s actions resulted in swift and widespread international condemnation.
New US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a statement expressing “deep concern and concern” over the reported detentions.
“We call on the Burmese military leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and to respect the will of the Burmese people expressed in democratic elections,” he wrote, using Myanmar’s old name. . “The United States supports the Burmese people in their aspirations for democracy, freedom, peace and development.
The office of the UN Secretary General was among those who issued a statement condemning the developments as a “serious blow to democratic reforms”.
In Brussels, the President of the European Council of the European Union, Charles Michel, issued a statement strongly condemning “the coup in Myanmar” and calling on the military to “release all those who were illegally detained during raids in across the country ”.
“The outcome of the elections must be respected and the democratic process must be restored,” he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen echoed the condemnation and insisted on Twitter that “legitimate civilian government must be restored”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also condemned “the coup and the unlawful imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi”, by the Burmese military.
PTO
The detention of politicians and cuts to television signals and communications services on Monday were the first signs that the takeover plans were underway. The telephone and Internet access in Naypyitaw were lost. Phone service in other parts of the country has also been reported to be down, although people can still use the internet in many areas.
The Irrawaddy, an established online news service, reported that Suu Kyi, who as state councilor is the country’s top leader, and the country’s president, Win Myint, were both detained within hours before dawn. The press service quoted Myo Nyunt, an NLD spokesperson.
His report said members of the party’s Central Executive Committee, lawmakers and members of the regional cabinet had also been detained.
A list of other people suspected of having been detained, compiled by political activists who asked not to be named for security reasons, included filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, writer Maung Thar Cho and Prominent veterans of the country’s 1988 student protest movement, such as Ko Ko Gyi and Min Ko Naing. Their detention could not be immediately confirmed.
As news of the military’s actions spread in Yangon, the country’s largest city, a sense of unease grew among residents who earlier in the day were still crowded into breakfast cafes and did their morning shopping.
People would remove the bright red flags of Suu Kyi’s party that once adorned their homes and businesses. Queues formed at ATMs as people waited to withdraw money, efforts that were complicated by internet disruptions. The workers of some companies have decided to return home.
Monday’s parliamentary session was set to be the first since last year’s elections, as tension persisted over recent military comments that were widely seen as a threat of a coup.
The 2008 constitution, drafted and implemented under military rule, contains a clause that states that in the event of a national emergency, the president, in coordination with the military-dominated National Council for Defense and Security , may issue an emergency decree to hand over the government executive, legislative and judicial powers to the commander-in-chief of the army.
The clause had been described by New York-based Human Rights Watch as a “standby coup mechanism.”
It was just one of the many parts of the charter that ensured that the military could maintain ultimate control over the country at the expense of elected politicians. The military has also been guaranteed 25% of seats in parliament and control of several key ministries, especially those involved in security and defense.
Suu Kyi, 75, is by far the most popular politician in the country and became the country’s de facto leader after her party won the 2015 election, despite being barred from being president by the constitution. She had been a fierce antagonist of the military during her house arrest.
Nevertheless, once in power, Suu Kyi had to balance her relations with the generals of the country and even rose to the international stage to defend their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the west of the country, a campaign that the United States and others have called genocide. This left its international reputation in tatters.
She remains very popular at home, where most supported the campaign against the Rohingya. Suu Kyi’s party won 396 out of 476 seats in the combined upper and lower houses of parliament in polls last November.
The military, known as Tatmadaw, accused massive voter fraud in the election, although it did not provide any evidence. The National Union Election Commission last week rejected his allegations.
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