Coup in Myanmar, Suu Kyi detained
NAYPYITAW: Myanmar's military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said the military would take control of the country for one year. The takeover came the morning the country's new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that the military was plotting a coup.
NAYPYITAW: Myanmar’s military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule.
An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military’s claims of fraud in November’s elections — in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs — and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The takeover came the morning the country’s new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that a coup was coming. The military maintains its actions are legally justified — citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency — though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup.
For some, Monday’s takeover was seen as confirmation that the military holds ultimate power despite the veneer of democracy. New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch has previously described the clause in the constitution that the military invoked as a “coup mechanism in waiting.”
Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy released a statement on one of its Facebook pages saying the military’s actions were unjustified and went against the constitution and the will of voters. The statement urged people to oppose Monday’s “coup” and any return to “military dictatorship.”
Myanmar shuts down all flights
Myanmar’s government agency in charge of air travel says it has stopped all passenger flights in the country.
The US Embassy in Myanmar said on its Facebook page that the road to the international airport in Yangon, the country’s s biggest city, had been closed on Monday.
On Twitter it said that “reports indicate that all airports in Myanmar are closed.”