Myanmar’s military leaders have extended their detention of deposed Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, whose remand was set to expire yesterday, and whose freedom is a key demand of the crowds of people continuing to protest this month’s military coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi would now be remanded until tomorrow, when she would likely appear in court by videoconference, said Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer asked by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party to represent her.
The Nobel laureate remains under house arrest on a minor charge of possessing unregistered imported walkie-talkies.
Photo: AP
Aung San Suu Kyi’s extended detention is likely to further inflame tensions between the military, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, and the protesters who have taken to the streets of cities across the Southeast Asian nation seeking the return of the government they elected.
Protesters yesterday continued to gather across Myanmar following a night in which authorities cut the country’s Internet access and increased security presence in major cities seeking to curtail demonstrations.
Thousands of engineers marched on the streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, chanting and holding signs that read: “Free our leader,” “Who stands with justice?” and “Stop arresting people illegally at midnight.”
In Yangon, the country’s most populous city, fewer protesters gathered due to the loss of Internet and reports of military vehicles on the streets.
Nevertheless, more than 1,000 anti-coup demonstrators were outside the Central Bank of Myanmar building, where there were also military trucks full of soldiers, riot police, water-cannon trucks and armored personnel carriers.
Internet connectivity was later restored at about the start of the working day, with monitoring site Netblocks saying the blackout lasted about eight hours.
Demonstrators carried placards that read “#SupportCDM #SaveMyanmar.”
CDM refers to the civil disobedience movement that has seen doctors, engineers and others in Myanmar refuse to work until the military releases elected political leaders and returns the country to civilian rule.
Some protesters posed for photographs in front of military vehicles while holding red signs that said “Join in CDM.”
Security forces reportedly opened fire to disperse protesters in Mandalay, the Frontier Myanmar magazine wrote on Twitter, with an unidentified member of a student union in the city saying some people were wounded.
The report was not independently verified.
When the military seized power, it detained Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her government, and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of parliament.
The junta, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said it stepped in because the government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in last year’s election, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.
The state election commission refuted that contention, saying there is no evidence to support it.
The military justified its move by citing a clause in the 2008 constitution, implemented during military rule, that says in cases of national emergency, the government’s executive, legislative and judicial powers can be handed to the military commander-in-chief.
It is just one of many parts of the charter that ensured the military could maintain ultimate control over the country it ruled for 50 years following a 1962 coup. The military is allowed to appoint its members to 25 percent of seats in parliament and it controls of several key ministries involved in security and defense.
On Sunday, ambassadors from the US, Canada and 12 European nations called on Myanmar’s security forces to refrain from violence against those “protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.”
They condemned the arrests of political leaders and advocates, as well as the military’s interference with communications.
“We support the people of Myanmar in their quest for democracy, freedom, peace, and prosperity,” they said in a joint statement issued late on Sunday night.
Additional reporting by AFP and Reuters, with staff writer
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the