Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi calls people on to street

Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged her supporters not to accept a military coup on Monday.

Soldiers blockade a road to Myanmar's parliament in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday. Picture: AFP

Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged her supporters not to accept a military coup on Monday, after the army declared a one-year state of emergency in which all legislative, judicial and executive powers will be transferred to military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing.

“The actions of the military are actions to put the country back under a dictatorship,” read a statement released by her National League for Democracy under her name which the party said was prepared before her arrest.

Ms Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained in early morning raids. Some regional ministers and political activists were also arrested by the military which has alleged massive electoral fraud in polls last November that returned the NLD to office with a 80 per cent majority.

Troops guard city hall in Yangon on Monday. Picture: AFP

“As the situation must be resolved according to the law, a state of emergency is declared,” the army declared in an announcement broadcast on a military television station, the only one still operating yesterday after internet, phone and broadcast networks were blocked across the capital Naypyidaw and Yangon.

“Although the sovereignty of the nation must derive from the people, there was terrible fraud in the voter list during the democratic general election which runs contrary to ensuring a stable democracy. Unless this problem is resolved it will obstruct the path to democracy and it must therefore be resolved according to law.”

It said it would hold new elections in 12 months and return power to the winner of the poll.

In Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial hub, troops seized the city hall while truckloads of army supporters drove through the city blaring nationalist songs. Banks across the country remained closed.

The latest coup, a decade since the country began its democratic transition and just ahead of Monday’s opening of the new parliament that would have enshrined November’s poll results, has drawn international condemnation. Australia, the UK, US and UN have all demanded the army release Ms Suu Kyi and other elected officials, and restore the duly-elected NLD government. “We call on the military to respect the rule of law, to resolve disputes through lawful mechanisms and to release immediately all civilian leaders and others who have been detained unlawfully,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said.

Army trucks line the road in Yangon on Monday. Picture: AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed “grave concern and alarm” over reports of 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.

While Canberra has not yet decided whether to reimpose sanctions, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US would “take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed”.

Aung San Suu Kyi at a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Naypyidaw last week. Picture: AFP

Even Beijing, a likely beneficiary of any move that pulls Myanmar away from the West, said it hoped “all parties in Myanmar will properly handle their differences under the constitutional and legal framework and maintain political and social stability”.

Under Myanmar’s new military rule, Vice-President U Myint Swe, a former general aligned with the military, will serve as acting president though real authority rests in the hands of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who had been due to retire this year.

Talk of a coup gained momentum last week after a military spokesman refused to rule one out during a media conference in which the army presented documents it said supported its claims of electoral fraud, which the Election Commission has denied.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Picture: AFP

General Min Aung Hlaing added fuel to coup fears when he told a group of cadets on Wednesday that if the constitution was “not respected or followed, we must abolish it”, though appeared to back away from those threats on Saturday with a statement promising to abide by the constitution.

After 49 years of brutal military rule, the army had prepared meticulously for its 2011 nominal transition to civilian government with a charter that guaranteed it 25 per cent of all parliamentary seats and control of three senior ministries; defence, home affairs and border affairs. But it clearly underestimated the mass support for Ms Suu Kyi — the hugely popular pro-democracy movement leader who the NLD to an election victory after 15 years under house arrest.

Her international reputation as a democracy icon has been shredded by her government’s handling of the 2017 Rohingya Muslim crisis in which more than 700,000 civilians fled to Bangladesh to escape an army crackdown. But inside Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where there is little sympathy for the Rohingya, she remains a hugely popular figure.