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Police leveled their first formal charge against Burma's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, members of her party said Wednesday, giving military authorities who staged a coup a legal reason to detain her at least through the middle of the month.
The charge — that Suu Kyi was in possession of illegally imported walkie-talkies — came to light two days after she was placed under house arrest and appeared to be an effort to lend a legal veneer to her detention, though the generals have previously kept her and others locked up for years.
WHY IS THE MILITARY TAKING CONTROL IN BURMA?
The military announced Monday that it would take power for one year — accusing Suu Kyi’s government of not investigating allegations of voter fraud in recent elections. Suu Kyi’s party swept that vote, and the military-backed party did poorly.
National League for Democracy spokesman Kyi Toe confirmed the charge against Suu Kyi that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. He also said the country’s ousted president, Win Myint, was charged with violating the natural disaster management law. A leaked charge sheet dated Feb. 1 indicates they can be held until Feb. 15.
"It was clear that the military were going to look for some legal cases against the leaders of the National League for Democracy and especially Aung San Suu Kyi to actually legitimize what they’ve tried to do," said Larry Jagan, an independent analyst of Burma affairs. "And that is really a power grab."
Police and court officials in the capital Naypyitaw could not immediately be contacted.
At the same time that authorities were working to keep Suu Kyi in detention, hundreds of lawmakers who had been forced to stay at government housing after the coup were told Wednesday to leave the capital city within 24 hours and go home, said a member of Parliament from Suu Kyi’s party who is among the group. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared drawing the attention of the military.
The coup was a dramatic backslide for Burma, which had been making progress toward democracy, and highlighted the extent to which the generals have ultimately maintained control in the Southeast Asian country.
Armed soldiers travel in a convoy of army vehicles patrolling in Mandalay, Myanmar, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. In the early hours of Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, the Myanmar army took over the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup over allegations of fraud in November's elections. (AP Photo)
In response to the coup, Suu Kyi’s party has called for nonviolent resistance, and scores of people in Yangon, Burma's largest city, honked car horns and banged on pots and pans on Tuesday night in a protest. Supporters of the military have also staged demonstrations.
Medical workers have also declared they won’t work for the new military government in protest of the coup at a time when the country is battling a steady rise in COVID-19 cases with a dangerously inadequate health system. Photos were shared on social media showing health workers with red ribbons pinned to their clothes or holding printed photos of red ribbons.
There were also protests in neighboring Thailand, where Khin Maung Soo, a Burma national, said Wednesday that he was demonstrating to "show the world that we are not happy with what happened."
He added: "We want to the world to know, and we want the whole world to help us too."
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS BURMA MILITARY COUP, SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE IN THE STREETS
The takeover marked a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.
Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she worked with the generals and even defended their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, damaging her international reputation.
The international community, which had enthusiastically supported Burma's nascent democracy, now faces a test. The United States has threatened sanctions and has labeled the takeover a coup. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday but took no action.
The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 leading industrial nations on Wednesday issued a statement calling for Suu Kyi and others to be released and for power to be restored to the democratically elected government.
While in power, Burma's new leader said the military government plans to investigate alleged fraud in last year’s elections. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced the moves Tuesday at the first meeting of his new government in the capital, the state-run Global New Light of Burma newspaper said.
While the military has cited the government’s failure to properly investigate allegations of electoral irregularities as one of the reasons for the coup, the state Union Election Commission has said there were no significant problems with the vote.
Analysts have said the landslide victory of Suu Kyi’s party may have caught the military by surprise — and made the generals concerned that it had too much power, even though the constitution had been carefully written to ensure the military maintained significant control, including with an allocation of 25% of the seats in Parliament.
Myanmar nationals living in Thailand set a fire to a picture of Myanmar military Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during a protest in front of the United Nations' building in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. Myanmar's military pulled off a well-choreographed coup Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, the country's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, finds herself right back where she was just over a decade ago - under house arrest. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Min Aung Hlaing also said that COVID-19 containment measures taken by Suu Kyi’s government would be continued.
Burma has confirmed more than 140,600 cases including some 3,100 deaths. Its health care infrastructure is one of the weakest in Asia, according to U.N. surveys.
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A statement issued Wednesday in the name of the executive members of Suu Kyi’s party said that authorities began raiding the party’s offices in Mandalay and other states and regions on Tuesday and seized documents and laptop computers.
The statement on the Facebook page of party spokesman Kyi Toe said locks were broken at several offices. It denounced the raids as illegal and demanded that they stop.