Naypyitaw, Myanmar – Myanmar’s military-led television network said on Monday that the military had taken control of the country for a year, amid reports that many of the country’s senior politicians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, had been detained. The takeover was soon condemned by European leaders as a coup, while President Joe Biden’s newly sworn government in Washington expressed “ grave concern. ”
CBS News Asia correspondent Ramy Inocencio managed to get in touch with a friend in the country’s largest city, Yangon, despite most lines of communication being cut by the military. The friend told Inocencio that people panicked while buying food and rushed to ATMs to try to get their money out as the military leaders stopped all flights in the country and closed banks.
A presenter on Myanmar-owned Myawaddy TV announced the takeover, citing part of the military-drafted constitution that allows the military to take control in times of national emergencies. He said the takeover was due in part to the government’s failure to follow up on the military’s allegations of voter fraud in last November’s election and the government’s failure to postpone the election due to the coronavirus crisis.
The military said it would hold new elections at the end of the state of emergency and hand over power to the winner. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in the November general election, humiliating the military-backed opposition Solidarity and Union Development party.
The military TV report said Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country, while Vice President Myint Swe would be elevated to acting president. Myint Swe is a former general best known for his brutal suppression of 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 this would be the first – and came on the morning the country’s new parliamentary session 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 on Suu Kyi’s Facebook page said the military’s actions were unjustified and contrary to the constitution and the will of the voters.
The takeover is a sharp turnaround in the partial but significant progress towards democracy 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 struggle for democracy. despite years under house arrest and won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts.
“Serious Concern and Alarm”
The military’s actions led to swift and widespread international condemnation.
New US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken issued a statement expressing “grave concern and alarm” about the reported arrests.
“We call on Burmese military leaders to release all government officials and civil society leaders and to respect the will of the people of Burma as expressed in democratic elections,” he wrote, using Myanmar’s former name. “The United States is behind the people of Burma in their pursuit of democracy, freedom, peace and development. The military must immediately reverse these actions.”
The office of the UN Secretary-General was among those to issue a statement condemning the developments as “a serious blow to democratic reform”.
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 unlawfully detained in raids 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 reiterated the condemnation, urging on Twitter that “legitimate civilian government must be restored”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also condemned “the coup d’état and the illegal imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi” by the Myanmar military.
Power grip
The detention of politicians and cuts to television signals and communications services on Monday were the first signs that there were plans to take power. Telephone and internet access to Naypyitaw has been lost. Telephone services in other parts of the country were also low, although people could still use the Internet in many areas.
The Irrawaddy, an established online news service, reported that Suu Kyi, who is the country’s main leader as a state adviser, and the country’s president, Win Myint, were both detained in the early morning hours. The news service quoted Myo Nyunt, a spokesman for the NLD.
The report stated that members of the Central Executive Committee, legislators and members of the regional cabinet were also detained.
A list of other people believed to have been detained, compiled by political activists who did not want to be named by name for security reasons, included filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, writer Maung Thar Cho, and prominent veterans of the 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 growing sense of unease grew among residents who had still packed up in cafes for breakfast earlier in the day and had their were running errands.
People removed the bright red flags of Suu Kyi’s party that once graced their homes and businesses. Lines formed at ATMs while people waited to withdraw money, efforts made difficult by internet outages. Employees of some companies decided to go home.
Monday’s parliamentary session would be the first since last year’s election, when tension lingered over recent comments from the military that were widely perceived as a threat to a coup.
The 2008 constitution, drafted and implemented during military rule, includes a clause that says that in the event of a national emergency, the president in coordination with the military-dominated National Defense and Security Council can issue an emergency decree to enforce the executive from government to transfer legislative and judicial powers to the commander in chief of the military.
The clause was described by the New York-based Human Rights Watch as a “pending coup” mechanism.
It is just one of the many elements of the charter that allowed the military to retain ultimate control of the country at the expense of elected politicians. The military was also given a guarantee of 25% of the seats in parliament and the control of several important ministries, especially those related to security and defense.
Suu Kyi, 75, is by far the country’s most popular politician, becoming the country’s de facto leader after her party won the 2015 elections, even though the constitution forbade her to run for president. She had been a fierce opponent of the military during her house arrest.
Nevertheless, once in power, Suu Kyi had to balance her relationship with the country’s generals and even took to the international stage to crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the west of the country, a campaign that the US and others have called genocide. This has shattered its international reputation.
She remains wildly popular at home, where most supported the campaign against the Rohingya. Suu Kyi’s party won 396 of the 476 seats in the combined lower and upper houses of parliament in the polls last November.
The military, known as the Tatmadaw, has charged that there was massive voting fraud in the elections, although it has provided no evidence. The state union election commission rejected her allegations last week.