Suu Kyi faces another charge
UN warns severe consequences for junta, which vows to hold elections in time
YANGON: Police in Myanmar filed a new charge against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer said on Tuesday, in a move that may allow her to be held indefinitely without trial as part of an intensifying crackdown by authorities who seized power in a coup.
Suu Kyi already faced a charge of illegally possessing walkietalkies — an apparent attempt to provide a legal veneer for her house arrest.
The new charge was for breaking a law that has been used to prosecute people who have violated coronavirus restrictions, lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters after meeting with a judge in a court in the capital, Naypyitaw.
It carries a maximum punishment of three years in prison. But because of changes to the Penal Code instituted by the junta last week, it could allow her to be detained indefinitely without court permission.
At its first news conference since overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government, the junta promised on Tuesday that it would hold an election and hand over power.
The military has not given a date for a new election but has imposed a state of emergency for one year. Brig Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling council, said the military would not hold power for long.
Protests continued on Tuesday in Yangon, the country’s largest city, and elsewhere. In Yangon, police blocked off the street in front of the Central Bank, which protesters have targeted amid speculation online that the military is seeking to seize money from it. Buddhist monks demonstrated outside the UN’S local office in the city.
Around 3,000 demonstrators — mainly students — returned to the streets of Mandalay, carrying posters of Suu Kyi and shouting for the return of democracy.
The protests are taking place in defiance of an order banning gatherings of five or more people. But the security presence was low-key around the march after Monday’s confrontations.
UN special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener spoke on Monday to the deputy head of the junta in what has become a rare channel of communication between the army and the outside world, urging restraint and the restoration of communications.
“Ms Schraner Burgener ...has conveyed to the Myanmar military that the world is watching closely, and any form of heavyhanded response is likely to have severe consequences”, spokesman Farhan Haq said at the United Nations.