Myanmar woke up to a Military Coup, Aung San Suu Kyi detained

Myanmar’s military has taken over the reins of the country following the arrests of the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior leaders in early morning raids Monday.

In an address on military-owned television Myawaddy TV, Myanmar’s military said that it had detained key political leaders in response to election fraud and had declared a state of emergency, Reuters reported. Power has been handed to army chief Min Aung Hlaing, according to Reuters.

On Monday morning, Myanmar’s main news channels were suspended from the air and there were reports of significant internet disruption in the county. Soldiers could also be seen outside city hall in the country’s commercial centre Yangon.

Earlier Suu Kyi’s party the NLD registered an overwhelming victory with 83% of the vote in the country’s second democratic ballot since the end of direct military rule in 2011. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won 33 out of a possible 476 seats. Myanmar’s election commission on Thursday rejected claims of voter fraud, saying any errors — such as duplicated names on voter lists — were not enough to impact the result of the vote, CNN reported.

Human rights non-government organization Burma Rights UK said in a post to their Twitter that the news of Suu Kyi’s detention was “devastating.”

“This needs to be met with the strongest international response. The military needs to be made to understand that they have made a major miscalculation in thinking they can get away with this,” the group said.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is seen as a hero of democracy in Myanmar, who has spent 15 years under house arrest and is the daughter of assassinated independence icon, Aung San. Since her party won a landslide victory in 2015 and established the first civilian government after 50 years of isolation and military authoritarianism, she has been Myanmar’s de facto leader.

A wave of apprehension, distress and worry has engulfed the citizens of the country. Renowned Myanmar historian and author Thant Myint-U took to Twitter to express his concerns. He said, “The doors just opened to a very different future.” “I have a sinking feeling that no one will really be able to control what comes next. And remember Myanmar’s a country awash in weapons, with deep divisions across ethnic and religious lines, where millions can barely feed themselves.“

_{Source: Reuters and CNN}

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