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YANGON: Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with another charge on Tuesday (February 16), after the army imposed a second internet shutdown overnight in an attempt to crush an anti-coup uprising.
In the two weeks since the generals toppled Aung San Suu Kyi and placed the civilian leader under house arrest in the administrative capital, Naypyidaw, both large cities and isolated village communities have openly rebelled.
The army justified its seizure of power by alleging widespread electoral fraud in the November elections that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won.
After her arrest in a dawn raid on February 1, the day of the coup, she was charged under an obscure import-export law, for walkie-talkies that were found at her home during a search.
The Nobel laureate’s lawyer told AFP on Tuesday that she had been charged with a second count, for violating the country’s disaster management law.
“She was charged under section eight of the Export and Import Law and section 25 of the Natural Disaster Management Law,” Khin Maung Zaw told AFP.
While it was unclear how disaster law was applied in the Aung San Suu Kyi case, it has been used against deposed President Win Myint, also arrested on February 1, in connection with a campaign event that, according to the board , broke the restrictions related to COVID-19.
Khin Maung Zaw added that Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, with whom he has not yet had contact, were expected to appear via video conference during the March 1 trial.
Protesters display photos of the detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay on Tuesday, February 16, 2021 (Photo: AP).
Both defendants were in “a safer location” and “are in good health,” according to military spokesman Zaw Min Tun.
“It is not as if they have been arrested, they are staying at home,” the general, who became the country’s deputy information minister after the coup, said during a press conference on Tuesday.
More than 420 people have been arrested since the coup, according to a list of confirmed arrests from the monitoring group of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners. There are numerous unconfirmed reports of other arrests.
READ: Myanmar Army Guarantees New Elections; protesters block train services
READ: More protests after Myanmar’s military government cut internet and deployed troops
“WE DON’T SLEEP ALL NIGHT”
Security forces have increasingly used force to quell huge street protests across the country and a campaign of disobedience that encourages officials to strike.
Troops have been deployed across the country in recent days.
Rubber bullets were fired to disperse a demonstration in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, hours before authorities cut off Internet access again.
“They shut down the Internet because they want to do bad things,” said Win Tun, 44, a resident of the commercial capital Yangon.
“We didn’t sleep all night so we could see what was going on.”
The internet blackout came after another day of protests in Yangon and Mandalay, where police used slingshots against protesters and fired rubber bullets into the crowd. At least six were injured in the clashes.
Buddhist monks and nuns display photos of detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Crowds returned to the streets of Yangon and across the country on Tuesday morning.
“I want more people to join the protests, we don’t want them to see us as weak,” said university student Thwe Ei Sann.
A large crowd blocked the train tracks on the outskirts of Mawlamyine to prevent a Yangon-bound train from leaving the port city.
Many of the country’s train conductors have joined boycotts against the coup, thwarting the board’s efforts to restart the national rail network after the COVID-19 shutdown.
Over the weekend, Yangon residents used tree trunks to block police vehicles dispatched to carry striking railway workers back to their stations.
READ: Telco in Myanmar stops listing outages, citing fears for employees
READ: What does the military government mean for foreign investment in Myanmar?
“NOBODY BELIEVES THEM”
The international community has unleashed a torrent of condemnations against the leaders of Myanmar’s new military administration, which insists that it has assumed power legally.
United Nations special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener spoke to No. 2 board Soe Win on Monday, warning him that the regime’s network blackouts “undermine fundamental democratic principles,” according to a spokesperson.
State media reported the next day that the general had discussed “security measures” with the envoy, along with the regime’s roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination and economic recovery plans.
UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews told AFP on Monday that he did not expect Aung San Suu Kyi’s court hearing to be fair.
“There is nothing fair about the board. This is theater. It’s just theater,” Andrews said.
“And, of course, nobody believes them.”
