Burmese authorities yesterday filed criminal charges against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi for possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies just days after the military ousted her government in a coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi was charged for breaching an import-export law and faces as many as three years in prison if convicted.
A police incident report said that unauthorized telecommunications equipment was found at her home in Naypyitaw, the capital.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Former Burmese president Win Myint was separately charged for breaching the natural disaster management law over an election campaign rally that police say breached COVID-19 restrictions and faces the same penalty, the report said.
Kyi Toe, a member of the central information committee of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, confirmed the report.
Aung San Suu Kyi has called on supporters to resist Myanmar’s generals, who seized power on Monday after claiming without presenting evidence that her landslide victory in the election in November last year was tainted with fraud.
The military has pledged to hold elections after a year-long state of emergency.
NLD lawmakers yesterday released a statement demanding the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, recognition of the election results and the removal of all barriers to holding a new parliamentary session.
Protests against the coup have emerged, with a “Civil Disobedience Movement” started by democracy advocates, including medical professionals, yesterday announcing that more than 70 hospitals and medical departments would stop work in protest of what it called an “illegitimate” government.
The coup could not have come at a worse time for a country battling a steady rise in COVID-19 cases with a dangerously inadequate health system.
“We want to show the world we are totally against military dictatorship, and we want our elected government and leader back,’’ said Zun Ei Phyu, a doctor in Yangon. “We want to show them we will follow only our elected government. Not the military.”
Photographs were shared on social media showing workers with red ribbons pinned to their clothes or holding printed photographs of red ribbons.
Others used a three-finger salute that has become a symbol of pro-democracy protests in Thailand, where the military staged a coup six years ago and remains influential.
Some medical staff went on strike, while others who continued work in government-run clinics made public their opposition to the new military rulers.
Some of those on strike have begun to volunteer at charity health clinics, many of which were shut down as a precaution against a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary