Thread: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi 'detained by military', NLD party says

Have about 100+ contacts in Myanmar on my FB friend list and they are all offline-looks like the internet may have been cut in other cities now too. I think this has the potential to become quite violent.

Telling signs of 8-10 months ago.
Can't say we didn't see it coming.

Have to wonder how the population is gonna react.

From South China Morning Post



+++++

IMO the whole situation is alarming. Say what you will about their government's handling of the Rohingya crisis - it's very controversial. The few Burmese ppl that I talked with in April 2016 - they were all hopeful about the new party & democratic government. They just had elections in October or Nov 2015, so the freedom was still new. They called Suu Kyi "The Mother" and she was very much revered. These were young hotel staff (in theur 20s) and they were hopeful that their generation would have more liberties than their parents.

BTW, even though the country was democratic then, we passed by a lot of military checkpoints and the driver of my shared taxi had to give tea money at each point. I passed for a local, so even though I was seated beside him, I wasn't qyestioned. The driver said if I had been white (or Korean /Japanese), they'd have asked to see my papers and the purpose of my trip (it was for tourism - I made a travel thread of it).

More vids, if anyone is interested


CNA (Singapore based)


AlJazeera

Looks like a coup to me.

Originally Posted by Neverna

Looks like a coup to me.

Ya think?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Ya think?

Another quality post by Mr Super-Negative. That's only 60 in the past 24 hours. You must be really busy with other things. Anyway, when are you going to start blaming the Chinese for this?

Considering the support she got prior to being released she has done very little to change Myanmar . . . and let's not forget about the Rohingya.

Nah, no tears shed. I just hope the 'west' won't fall over themselves again in supporting her.


In NZ, the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta she couldn't remember Aung's name and said 'I hope 'the leader' is ok' . . . paraphrased.



And as for China:

a China foreign ministry spokesperson said"it doesn't matter whether they have five eyes or 10; if they dare to damage China's sovereignty, security and development, they should be careful or their eyes will be plucked out".
Nanaia Mahuta said she could not assess if the statement was a threat, but "words can be interpreted in many ways".

Utterly sad

Originally Posted by Neverna

Another quality post by Mr Super-Negative. That's only 60 in the past 24 hours. You must be really busy with other things. Anyway, when are you going to start blaming the Chinese for this?

"Negative"?

You just smashed your way to the top of the leader board on TD's "Stating the fucking obvious" award for 2021, and you call it "negative"?

Friends are reporting the two the the major phone networks are down, with only MTP still up and running. Internet providers have been spotty all day. They describe the atmosphere as being very tense.

There simply won't be any kind of uprising....the people know the military will crush it mercilessly, as they always have. Those people have been beaten into submission... like in Cambodia, only worse.

From a poster on Reddit....

I’m from Myanmar and this shit is really happening just a few hours ago. Here it started about 6am. Now it’s 9:50am. My sister woke me up this morning, with a panic voice, after she came back from exercising. She said, the military has grabbed the power and taken all the winning party leaders. All the main network operators have been shut down and only private fiber connections work so far. Don’t know when they are also coming to an end. I can’t reach my phone calls to my parents from different states and the whole country is fucked up. People are panic buying till this moment. Shops are running out of eggs and some stuffs. I just went shopping. Fuck it. Fuck. Fuck.

Originally Posted by russellsimpson

It will be interesting to see the international response. I'm sure many western liberal democracies will express concern. I wonder what Biden will have to say? Expect silence from the Thai government. Same thing from China , they may even go so far as issue a supportive statement for the military.

Damn sad but not surprising.

Oh dear.
Parroting the expected. Almost textbook in an unknowing manner.

Given the hypocrisy of Aung Suu Kyi in supporting the genocide of the Rohingya I shouldn't imagine anyone seized of a functioning brain will give a shit over what might happen to the old bag. Burma is a geographical expression and has nothing to commend it other than as a source of cheap labour.

Originally Posted by panama hat

In NZ, the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta she couldn't remember Aung's name and said 'I hope 'the leader' is ok' . . . paraphrased.

Phaaaaark me. That's ordinary.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Ruling Party Leaders Arrested as Myanmar Military Imposes 1-Year State of Emergency


UPDATED at 10:35 P.M. EST on 2021-1-31


Myanmar's military declared a one-year state of emergency to deal with voting fraud claims, the army said on Monday after it arrested leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s president, and state ministers following rising tensions over disputed 2020 election results.

A statement issued by Myint Swe, who was named interim president of Myanmar, said the military had "declared a state of emergency in the country" under Section 417 of the 2008 Constitution.


"In order to execute the necessary actions including the re-examination of voter’s lists ... all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers have been transferred to the military commander in chief," said the statement, which said the state of emergency was effective for a year beginning Monday.


"We have heard that the military has been arresting people from our party, and that it has detained the State Counselor and the President,” NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told RFA’s Myanmar Service.


Picked up in detentions launched hours before the new parliament was slated to convene Feb. 1 were State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and the state ministers from the region of Yangon, the country’s largest city, and Shan, Kayin, and Mon states, he said.


“Han Thar Myint and Thein Lwin, members of the NLD CEC are detained, too. I am waiting for their arrest now,” said Myo Nyunt, referring to the party’s Central Executive Committee. The number and whereabouts of the detained politicians were not immediately clear.

International reaction to the setback in one of only a handful of democracies in Southeast Asia was swift.


White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the U.S. is "alarmed" by the arrests and "in coordination with our regional partners, urge the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today."


"The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition, and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed," she said in a statement Sunday night.


Secretary Of State Antony J. Blinken expressed “grave concern and alarm” at the detentions.


“We call on Burmese military leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and respect the will of the people of Burma as expressed in democratic elections on November 8,” he said in a written statement.


“The military must reverse these actions immediately,” added Blinken.


Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne voiced deep concern Monday that “the Myanmar military is once again seeking to seize control of Myanmar.” She called on the military to respect the rule of law and “immediately release all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully.” Payne further urged that the National Assembly be reconvened in accordance with the results of the Nov. 8 election.


Telecoms and internet down in capital


The military, which had called on the government to postpone the convening of parliament and refused to rule out the possibility of a coup in response to allegations of election fraud, also arrested MPs, political activists and student leaders, sources told RFA.


“I am detained,” Mya Aye, a 1988 democracy movement activist and leader of the group Federal Democratic Forces, posted on his Facebook a few minutes before his account was deactivated at dawn on Monday.


State-run Myanmar Radio and Television or MRTV has announced early Monday that they were unable to broadcast.


“Due to a telecommunication issue, we would like to inform audiences respectfully that we’re not able to broadcast radio and TV programs yet,” MRTV posted on its Facebook page.


Telecommunications and internet were down in the capital Naypyidaw. Some phone lines were disabled in the main city of Yangon, and people were rushing to ATMs to withdraw money, but many of the automatic teller machines were not working, residents said.


Military troops took over the government building and mayor’s office in Myanmar’s second-largest city of Mandalay, but local markets and bazaars carried on business as normal.


"The military’s actions show utter disdain for the democratic elections held in November and the right of Myanmar’s people to choose their own government," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.


“We are especially concerned for the safety and security of activists and other critics of the military who may have been taken into custody," he said in a statement.


"We urge concerned governments to speak out forcefully against the military’s actions and consider targeted sanctions against those responsible.”


Monday’s detentions followed a string of veiled threats of a coup by Myanmar’s military last week over claims of voting fraud in the Nov. 8 elections, which the NLD swept in an outcome confirmed by electoral authorities.

Long history of military coups


Aung San Suu Kyi, a 75-year-old Nobel laureate who has spent nearly two decades under house arrest, was set to launch her second five-year term in late March. The NLD won 396 parliamentary seats in November, while the army-affiliated Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), took only 33 seats.


The military and the USDP have contended for weeks that there was widespread voter fraud and have increased pressure on the Union Election Commission (UEC) to investigate. Neither the military nor the USDP have submitted any evidence of actual voter fraud, but they have raised questions about outdated voter lists and other problems.


In response to talk about a coup, the UEC issued a statement on Thursday insisting that elections were devoid of fraud as alleged by the military, despite some voter list errors which it said it would investigate.


Intervention by the military is troubling to many in Myanmar, which endured brutal, corrupt military rule and international pariah status from 1962 to 2011, when it began a transition to democratic rule.


Writer Htin Lin Oo, an NLD member, described military men closing in on his house and waking up neighbors.


"I think they will enter my home soon. If they detain me, I will have to go with them," he wrote on Facebook.


"Now our country is under a military coup for the third time. The democracy we arduously built has been crushed," added Htin Lin Oo.


"I want to pass this message to our citizens: If we all are thrown into jail again, don’t give up."


Former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell, who was Washington’s envoy when Myanmar began its transition from decades of junta rule in 2012, called for the immediate restoration of democracy.


“Democracy in Myanmar must be restored immediately without conditions for good of country. Myanmar military’s detention/arrest of civilian leadership is indefensible, whatever the pretext, and must earn global condemnation,” Mitchell, now president of the National Democratic Institute, wrote on Twitter.


“The doors just opened to a very different future,” said Thant Myint-U, a Burmese academic and author. “I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next.”


Myanmar has a long history of coups and iron-fisted military rule since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. Military ruler Ne Win seized power in a coup in 1962 and drove Myanmar, then known as Burma, into virtual international isolation. Ne Win was sidelined in 1988 amid nationwide pro-democracy protests that were crushed by the military, which installed a junta. For the ensuing two decades, Myanmar faced tough international sanctions that took a heavy toll on its economy.


The country of 54 million people the size of France only began to open up around 2011, as the military ceded direct rule and allowed a civilian government to take shape which led to the lifting of international sanctions. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent 15 years under house arrest, was freed and her NLD took power after a sweeping victory in national elections in 2015 – a victory repeated this November.


The military, however, has retained key levers of power throughout this period, including a quarter of parliamentary seats and control of the key security ministries of border affairs, defense and the interior.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Ruling Party Leaders Arrested as Myanmar Military Imposes 1-Year State of Emergency — Radio Free Asia

That woman was a good democrat. But the US threw her under the bus for some Muslim pity project instead

Originally Posted by panama hat

Considering the support she got prior to being released she has done very little to change Myanmar . . . and let's not forget about the Rohingya.

Nah, no tears shed. I just hope the 'west' won't fall over themselves again in supporting her.


In NZ, the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta she couldn't remember Aung's name and said 'I hope 'the leader' is ok' . . . paraphrased.



And as for China:



Utterly sad

Rohinga were getting money from Saudi Arabia. Fuck them

Originally Posted by panama hat

Considering the support she got prior to being released she has done very little to change Myanmar . . . and let's not forget about the Rohingya.

Nah, no tears shed. I just hope the 'west' won't fall over themselves again in supporting her.


In NZ, the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta she couldn't remember Aung's name and said 'I hope 'the leader' is ok' . . . paraphrased.



And as for China:



Utterly sad

Quite. All that hope people had for her too.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

Given the hypocrisy of Aung Suu Kyi in supporting the genocide of the Rohingya I shouldn't imagine anyone seized of a functioning brain will give a shit over what might happen to the old bag.

Right on cue.

Originally Posted by Backspin

That woman was a good democrat. But the US threw her under the bus for some Muslim pity project instead

Here's the sanitized version from DW. They don't even deny it but they say they are funding them because of their bad treatment. It's the same everywhere. The Uigers , Croat Muslims, Chechens , you name it.

Is Saudi Wahhabism fueling Rohingya Muslim insurgency? | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 16.12.2016

So why has the army acted now?



So it is official. The armed forces in Myanmar have confirmed that they have carried out a coup d'etat, their first against a civilian government since 1962, and in apparent violation of the constitution which the military promised to honour as recently as last Saturday.


The grievances which have been driving tension between the military and the government are well enough known. The military-backed party, the USDP, performed poorly in last November's general election, whereas the NLD did even better than in 2015.


The timing of this coup is also easily explained. This week the first session of parliament since the election was due to start, which would have enshrined the election result by approving the next government. That will no longer happen.


But the military's longer game plan is hard to fathom. What do they plan to do in the year they have given themselves to run the country? There will be public anger over a coup so soon after an election in which 70% of voters defied the Covid-19 pandemic to vote so overwhelmingly for Aung San Suu Kyi.


Famously stubborn, she is unlikely to co-operate with a gun held to her head. Her ally, President Win Myint, is the only person authorised under the constitution to enact a state of emergency. He has been detained with her.


For the moment the military's action appears reckless, and puts Myanmar on a perilous path.








What has the reaction been in Myanmar?

Michael Ghilezan, a partner of a US law firm who lives in Yangon, told the BBC he had expected military vehicles and protests in the city, but there was instead an eerie calm. "The most common reaction from my Burmese friends has been anger. They feel deeply betrayed by the military and the USDP."


This was reflected in other comments from the streets, although there have been some supporters of the army out waving flags in Yangon.


Theinny Oo, a development consultant, told Reuters: "We had a lawful election. People voted for the one they preferred. We have no protection under the law now."


Many people feared giving their names. One 64-year-old resident of Hlaing township told AFP: "I don't want the coup. I have seen many transitions in this country and I was looking forward to a better future."


Author and historian Thant Myint-U tweeted that a door had opened to a "very different future", and he feared for the millions who have been descending into poverty.




The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter



And abroad?

The United States has condemned the coup, saying it "opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections".


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the release of all those detained and said the US "stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy".


In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the coup and Aung San Suu Kyi's "unlawful imprisonment".




The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter



European Union leaders have issued similar condemnations.


China, which has previously opposed international intervention in Myanmar, urged all sides in the country to "resolve differences".


IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionMilitary chief Min Aung Hlaing is now in power