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A key aide to ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on Friday, days after a coup that sparked outrage around the world and called on generals to relinquish power.
Win Htein, 79, confirmed his arrest in a brief interview with Reuters news agency, claiming that he was taken by police in a car from Yangon to the capital, Naypyidaw.
He did not specify what charges he could face.
“They are gentlemen, so I can pick up the phone,” he said. “We have been abused continuously for a long time. I have never been afraid of them because I haven’t done anything wrong all my life.
The arrest came after the streets of Myanmar’s largest city were filled for a third night with the noise of people hitting pots and honking cars, voicing their opposition to the coup.
About 70 members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) parliament also challenged the military on Thursday, convening a symbolic parliament at their compound in the capital, Naypyidaw, signing a pledge to serve the people. .
The military seized power on Monday, arresting Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and abruptly ending a worried alliance with democracy that had followed decades of oppressive military rule.
Win Htein, considered Aung San Suu Kyi’s right-hand man, “was arrested at his daughter’s house where he was staying at midnight (in Yangon),” said Kyi Toe, an NLD press secretary.
The mainstay of the NLD is a long-time political prisoner, who has spent long periods of detention and detention for campaigning against the military regime.
Wrong direction
Prior to his arrest, Win Htein told local English-language media that the military coup was “not wise” and that its leaders “had taken (the country) in the wrong direction.”
“Everyone in the country should oppose as much as possible the actions they seek to bring us down to zero by destroying our government,” he told Frontier Myanmar after the coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been accused of illegally importing telecommunications equipment via walkie-talkies found in her home, has not been seen in public since Monday.
According to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, a Yangon-based group that monitors political arrests in Myanmar, more than 130 officials and politicians have been arrested in connection with the coup.
Protesters took to the streets of Mandalay on Thursday to denounce the military after Monday’s coup [Stringer/Reuters]
The country’s telecommunications providers have also been ordered to restrict Facebook, the primary means of Internet access and communication for millions of people in Myanmar.
With Facebook stifled, more Burmese have taken to Twitter in recent days or have started using VPN services to bypass the block.
The hashtags opposing the coup, including #HearTheVoiceofMyanmar and #RespectOurVotes, were all the rage on Twitter in Myanmar on Friday, with more than seven million posts citing them.
Civil disobedience
A so-called civil disobedience movement has rallied online, calling on the public to voice their opposition every night by hitting pots and ringing cymbals to show their anger.
At 8 p.m. local time on Thursday, a cacophony of noise erupted from neighborhoods in Yangon, with cars honking through the streets to join the chorus of dissent.
“I haven’t been able to sleep or eat since the coup,” Yangon resident Win Bo told AFP news agency, adding that he was “a leader” during the uprising. from 1988.
UPDATE: Burmese President U Win Myint and his family have been evicted from his official residence and sent elsewhere – according to the party’s information committee. Other details are still unclear. #myanmar #myanmarcoup
– Hnin Zaw (@hninyadanazaw) February 4, 2021
This pro-democracy movement ended in a bloody crackdown, killing thousands of protesters and monks campaigning against the generals.
“Now I am confronted again,” he said. “I cannot take this blow. I want to make an armed revolution if possible. “
So far, no large-scale protests have taken place, although small pockets of dissent have arisen as medics have chosen to wear red ribbons – the color of the NLD.
‘Refrain from violence’
The coup drew condemnation around the world.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden reiterated his call for generals to reverse their course.
“The Burmese military should relinquish the power it has seized, release the lawyers, activists and officials it has detained, lift restrictions on telecommunications and refrain from violence,” Biden said.
He spoke hours after his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the White House “was considering specific targeted sanctions both against individuals and on military-controlled entities that enrich the country. ‘army”.
He did not give more details.
The United Nations Security Council took a softer approach, expressing “deep concern” over the military coup on Thursday – a step back from a previous bill that sought to condemn the action of the generals .
There have been calls for multinational companies working with companies linked to the Myanmar military to sever ties in order to put pressure on the generals.
Japanese beer giant Kirin said on Friday it was ending its joint venture with a military-owned conglomerate. Kirin has been under pressure for some time because of his ties to breweries owned by the Myanmar military.
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