YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Hundreds of members of Myanmar’s parliament remained confined inside their government houses in the country’s capital on Tuesday, a day after the military staged a coup and arrested senior politicians, including the award Nobel and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
One of the lawmakers said he and 400 members of parliament were able to talk to each other inside the compound and communicate with their districts by telephone, but were not allowed to leave the Naypyitaw housing complex. He said police were inside the complex and soldiers outside it.
The lawmaker said politicians, made up of members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and several minor parties, spent a sleepless night worried they might be taken away, but otherwise they would be fine.
“We had to stay awake and be alert,” said the legislator, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.
The inauguration took place when morning lawmakers across the country had gathered in the capital for the opening of the new parliamentary session and after days of concern that a coup would arrive. The military said the confiscation was necessary because the government had failed to act on military fraud allegations in the November elections – in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of parliamentary seats – and because it allowed that elections continue ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.
An announcement read Monday on military-owned Myawaddy TV said the commander-in-chief, senior general Min Aung Hlaing, would be at the helm of the country for a year. Late Monday, the commander-in-chief’s office announced the names of the new cabinet ministers. The 11-member cabinet is made up of military generals, former military generals and former advisers to a previous government led by former General Thein Sein.
The coup is a dramatic setback for Myanmar, which emerged from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It now presents evidence for the international community, which had ostracized Myanmar while it was in power. under military rule and then had embraced him enthusiastically. Suu Kyi’s government as a sign of the country was finally on the path to democracy. U.S. President Joe Biden threatened new sanctions, which the country had previously faced.
On Tuesday in Yangon, the country’s largest city, the streets were quieter than usual, but taxis and buses were still running and there were no external signs of great safety.
The Myanmar Times headlined the state of emergency, while other state newspapers displayed photographs on the front page of Monday’s National Security and Defense Council meeting, at which the newly appointed acting president Myint Swe and Min Aung Hlaing attended with other military officers.
The military has maintained that its actions are legally justified (citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency), although Suu Kyi’s party spokesman and many international observers have said to amount to a coup.
The acquisition represents a shocking fall to power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who had lived under house arrest for years while trying to push his country towards democracy and then became its de facto leader after his party won the election in 2015.
Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years of detention. But after his transition from the icon of democracy to the politician, he needed to work with the generals, who despite allowing the elections had never completely relinquished power.
Although the 75-year-old has continued to be popular in his home, Suu Kyi’s deference to the generals, coming to defend his repression against Rohingya Muslims that the United States and others have labeled as genocide, has left its tarnished reputation abroad.
The coup received an international condemnation and many countries demanded the release of detained leaders.
Biden described the military’s actions “as a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law” and said Washington would not hesitate to reinstate sanctions.
“The United States will defend democracy wherever it is attacked,” it said in a statement.
According to his spokesman, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the events as a “serious blow to democratic reforms”. The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the actions of the military, probably on Tuesday, according to Britain, which currently holds the presidency of the council.