– Return the country to dictatorship – VG

“We have heard that the president and the country’s leader were arrested in Naypyidaw and that they were taken away by the army,” said National League for Democracy (NLD) party spokesman Myo Nyunt.

According to the NLD, Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi is urging the country’s residents not to accept the coup and is calling for protests.

“The actions of the military are actions that lead the country back to dictatorship,” he said in a party statement on his behalf, writes Reuters.

“I ask people not to accept this, to respond and protest with all their hearts against this military coup,” he added.

The arrests took place early Monday morning.

– With the situation that we see developing now, we must assume that the army is carrying out a coup, he adds.

Myo Nyunt told Reuters that he himself expected to be arrested, but made the following appeal to the people:

“Don’t do anything hasty, I want everyone to behave in accordance with the law,” he told Reuters early Monday morning. The news agency has been unable to contact Nyunt after this.

Hours later, the army announces that it has seized power and that Min Aung Hlaing is the country’s new acting leader, writes the Reuters news agency.

The army has also declared a state of emergency in the country for a year. The announcement was made through the television channel owned by the army itself.

– I have the feeling that no one will be able to control what will happen next. Myanmar is a country full of guns, with deep ethnic and religious divisions and millions of people can barely feed themselves, says historian and author Thant Myint-U, according to Reuters.

According to a statement from the NLD party signed by Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday afternoon local time, the population is urged not to accept the military coup.

– The actions of the military are actions that put our country back under a dictatorship. I urge people not to accept this, to respond and protest wholeheartedly against this coup, he said in the statement, according to Reuters.

Riots after the elections

On Monday, the country’s new national assembly was expected to meet for the first time after the NLD won the November 8 elections by a wide margin. But the army had asked the government to postpone the call, according to the BBC.

In recent weeks, the country’s powerful military has claimed that the elections were marked by widespread deception, and the country’s most powerful person, Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing, did not rule out the possibility that the military could seize power. .

According to the AP news agency, they have not been able to present evidence of electoral fraud.

On Saturday, the army said it would promise to abide by the constitution and rejected the accusations of a possible military coup.

Suu Kyi’s party won a clear victory in the elections with 396 of the 476 seats in both houses of parliament. Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, came to power after the 2015 elections after her long struggle for democracy in the country.

The army has ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for some 50 years before beginning the transition to democracy in 2010. However, the army still has great power in the sense that, according to the constitution, it is entitled to 25 percent of seats in parliament and in control of various central ministries.

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According to the BBC, there are soldiers on the streets of the capital, Naypyidaw, and in the country’s largest city, Yangon, in the early hours of Monday. In the capital, telephone and internet connections were cut, the channel reports. Myanmar’s state television channel MRTV writes on Facebook that technical problems are preventing the station from broadcasting.

Soldiers have also searched the leaders’ homes in regions of the country and transported them, according to relatives.

Condemn the coup

The White House warns the Myanmar military of the consequences and demands the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other detainees.

“The United States is concerned by reports that Myanmar’s military has taken the step of undermining the country’s democratic transition, including the arrest of Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilians,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

President Joe Biden has been briefed by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. We support our strong support for the democratic institutions of Myanmar and, in cooperation with our regional partners, we urge the military and all other parties to respect democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those arrested today, it continues.

The US Secretary of State is calling on the military leaders in Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and calling on them to respect the outcome of the elections.

– The United States supports the people of Myanmar and their desire for democracy, freedom, peace and development. The military must withdraw immediately, he told Reuters.

The Australian authorities are also demanding that the army release Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We urge the Army to respect the rule of law, resolve disputes through legal mechanisms, and immediately release all civilian leaders and others who have been illegally arrested,” said Marise Payne, the country’s foreign minister.

UN Secretary General António Guterres condemns the coup, Reuters reports.

– This development is a major setback for democratic reforms. The Secretary General urges military leaders to respect the will of the people and adhere to democratic norms, and to resolve any disagreements through peaceful dialogue, said Guterres spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric.